


Child from the Stars and Skies

by MissMoonshine



Category: Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Family Fluff, baby sky, lighthearted and feelgood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28638501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMoonshine/pseuds/MissMoonshine
Summary: 'A teenager, I can handle. But a baby?'Briefly, said baby had turned into a teenager, but at the end of the day, Sarah Jane ends up with a (still sort of alien) baby that needs a home and really, who else could possibly raise Sky? So Sky stays, and Sarah Jane Smith finds herself with a new, younger than expected, daughter turning her life upside down.
Comments: 25
Kudos: 14





	1. Day One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome!  
> This story has been in the works for a few months now and it started because I needed to write something lighthearted to counterbalance the slightly heavier things I was writing and reading. So this is a total feelgood story, apart from maybe some drama here or there - but nothing serious.  
> When Sarah Jane said she had no idea what to do with a baby, well, I couldn't resist her challenge and having her actually end up with Baby Sky. Several chapters for this are already finished and it's something I keep writing on whenever I want something nice and light, so that's the entire feeling of the story.  
> In most chapters there will be guests, visitors, from all of DW, so if there is anyone you'd like to see dropping by, let me know - I'm keeping a list, so I'm sure they'll be able to show up at Bannerman Road sometime!  
> Now, I think that is enough chatter; I'll leave you to enjoy this first chapter!
> 
> The sandbox belongs to the beep, but I love to play in it!

'Beautiful baby Sky,' they had called her. Briefly, she hadn't been a baby anymore but a young girl just about to become a teenager.

A teenager, Sarah Jane thought, a teenager she could handle. But a baby? She wasn't so sure about that.

But there was no way she would give her back to Ms. Mayers, particularly now that she was a baby once again. Sarah knew that Sky would probably end up staying with her, even if she had not the slightest idea how to raise an infant.

None of them had known what would happen when Sky had been activated. One moment, Ms Mayers' portal was awaiting the arrival of the metalkind, the next they had all been blinded when the reactor shut down and the energy surged into the next outlet: Sky. When they were able to see again, she had disappeared.

Where moments ago a girl had stood was suddenly nothing - except there was. On the floor, lest the seat she had originally arrived in, was baby Sky again.

Immediately, Sarah Jane had stepped forward, protectively scooping the baby up in her arms. Her eyes were closed and for a terrible moment, Sarah had feared she wasn't breathing - but then, there was a gentle flutter under her fingers: a heartbeat.

Straightening to look at Ms Mayers, she returned her look of anger. 'Is she alright? What have you done -'

'She's different,' Ms Mayers spat.

'Different how?'

'The energy backlash, it's destroyed her genetic programming.'

'You mean, she's not a weapon any longer?'

'No.' Ms Mayers looked disgusted. 'The markers in her DNA dissolved. I have lost my daughter.'

Sarah had looked down at the baby in her arms. 'You mean she's human - normal - now.' It wasn't really a question but Ms Mayers nodded anyway. But before she could answer, the surviving metalkind pulled her into the portal, leaving Sarah Jane and Sky alone with Rani, Clyde and one very confused factory worker.

'Let's go home,' she sighed when it became clear that nothing more was going to happen, except someone demanding explanations.

* * *

'You!' Sarah Jane stared at the man in her attic - the shopkeeper and the Captain, his parrot. He stared back, eyes fixed on the babe. 'How did you get in here?'

'How has she not grown up?' He blatantly ignored her question and, sensing that insisting on an answer right now wouldn't get her very far, Sarah shrugged, trying to not wake the finally sleeping child.

'She did grow up. But that energy backlash from the portal, it destroyed her genetic programming and turned her back into a baby.'

'That shouldn't have happened.'

'Well, it did.' Sarah's eyes narrowed. 'You planned this, didn't you; you brought her here - what now? Are you going to take her away again?'

'Do you want me to take her?'

For a moment, Sarah considered it. That this stranger, who had brought Sky to her for protection, would take her away, take her somewhere she might be safe - but she could just as well end up in yet another war zone. A 'caretaker of the universe', he had called himself last time, but she knew virtually nothing about him and although he had done nothing to warrant it, she didn't exactly trust him.

She looked down at the baby again. Wasn't she far too old to raise a baby? Even without the timetravel and the years she'd lived twice she would turn sixty this year. But...she had seen the girl Sky would grow up to be. Had seen how she had looked at her, with those big eyes full of trust - how could she possibly break the faith she had put in her? 'The first thing I remember,' she had said, and somehow, that had felt...wonderful. Flattering. For Sky, she had become someone special in an instant and now, the reverse was true too.

Hesitantly, she turned her eyes back to the man and the parrot.

'No,' she said slowly. 'I want her to stay here, where I know she's safe.'

'Ah, yes, that's why I brought this child here - because nowhere in the universe could I find a home safer than yours.'

'Why did _you_ bring her here?' Sarah Jane asked again and the man wandered over, peeking at Sky. 'And who are you?'

'Consider me a servant of the universe,' he repeated. 'Some things cannot be left to chance and sometimes, a child needs to find their way home. And some things have to be put in place to keep everything else on track.'

'So that's what you do? Put _things_ on track? And Sky is just another _thing_ you use like a pawn in your game?'

'Ah, but I'm not playing a game. I'm merely putting things where they belong.' He grinned and Sarah Jane frowned at him.

'I would still like to know who you are.'

'All in good time, Ms Smith, all in good time. And for now - goodbye.'

'Now wait -' It was too late already, the stranger had disappeared into...nothing. Like he had never been there in the first place.

Sarah Jane sighed deeply and looked down at Sky.

'Well,' she said. 'I suppose we should get you all settled now.'

First things first, Sarah decided, and had Mr Smith scan Sky once more. He was rather reluctant at first but, eventually, obeyed and confirmed that there were only faint traces of her programming left in her DNA. Apparently, anything programmed beyond her basic DNA, like the level of maturity, had been bound to the weapon-bits Ms Mayers had added and when those had been destroyed, it had reset the rest of her DNA to its pre-programmed state.

Which worried Sarah more than she had expected, even with Mr Smith's reassurance that Sky was now a perfectly healthy human child. It was one thing to have him check her own and Luke's health on occasion, but this was a baby: a much more delicate matter. There weren't a lot of people Sarah trusted, but perhaps a call to some old friends would be in order.

That was about when she realised that while she still had the nappies and the formulae Clyde had picked up this morning, she had absolutely _nothing_ else that she needed to care for a baby.

She'd be fine.

Then, it really started to sink in and she stumbled over to the sofa, sinking down into the cushions, Sky still in her arms.

She was about to raise a baby. A _baby._ She didn't even _like_ babies. Even though she had to admit that despite being a little rubbery, Sky was somewhat sweet. But she was still a baby.

And suddenly, Sarah Jane Smith, who fought aliens on a daily basis and was perfectly used to all things impossible, burst into tears. What on earth had she gotten herself into?

It was how Luke found her when he called half an hour later, tears still glistening on her cheeks and her eyes all puffy.

'Mum? What happened?' He demanded the moment he saw her, immediately worried and ready to jump into his car and come home. To be fair, he had never before seen his mum look so...terrified, worried and shocked at the same time.

'I've agreed to do something, Luke, and I didn't have time to think it through -' she buried her face in her hands before looking back up at her son. 'You were a teenager, but Sky, I don't know how I am supposed to do this, I mean, I haven't the faintest idea how to take care of a baby -'

'A baby?! Woah, mum, what happened?' In a way, this would be affecting Luke just as much as it would be affecting Sarah herself, so she recounted the entire story to him, all the while keeping an eye on Sky, who was still fast asleep between several pillows on the sofa.

'Do you want me to come home, mum?' was the first thing Luke asked once she'd finished. For a moment, all Sarah wanted to say was 'yes, please, come and help me' but instead, she just shook her head.

'No, Luke, you've got to stay and focus on your studies. I can't have you come running every time I feel a little out of my depth - oh, don't argue with me, you know I'm right.' She gave him a warm, if a little watery, smile. 'I'll figure this out somehow, don't you worry about me - us. And when you're coming home next weekend, you'll meet Sky and then we'll go from there, alright?'

'Okay, mum,' Luke agreed, albeit reluctantly. After all, Sarah had been in tears just minutes before and he knew his mum well enough to know of her tendency to pretend to be fine. So of course he worried, no matter what she told him. Still, he conceded, 'but you'll keep me updated - and mum?'

'Yes?'

'Promise to call if you need anything? Or if something happens?'

'Promise.' She gave him another smile. 'Now off with you, go enjoy your evening with Sanjay and your friends.'

'Fine - but I'm coming home this weekend, alright? I want to meet my sister - she is my sister, right?' He seemed hesitant for a moment and Sarah blinked, surprised, before nodding slowly.

'Yes. Yes, of course she is. Your sister. Sky Smith.'

'I like that. Oh, Sanjay's back - love you, mum - and _call me_ if you need me!'

The screen turned black before Sarah could respond and she slumped back into the chair.

What _had_ she gotten herself into?

Sky was still asleep, so Sarah took a deep breath and turned back to her computer. She couldn't afford to panic, so she had to approach things strategically.

When she saw the sheer amount of lists with supposed 'baby essentials' online, Sarah still almost worked herself into another bout of panic before forcing herself to calm down. A closer look at the lists revealed that while a lot of things were considered 'essential' by the modern parent, she would start with the barest necessities. So, with another look at the sleeping baby, she began putting together her own lists.

In the end, she had two. The first one had the most dire items - a new car seat, a bassinet, a crib, babygros, a diaper bag, a baby blanket since the one she arrived in had been lost, bottles and pacifiers, nappies, and at least one book on how to even look after a baby. The second one were the slightly less immediately needed things: a pram, toys, some sort of changing table, clothes for all weather, and then some child-friendly furniture for Sky's room, considering she was here to stay.

Just as she was about to start looking which of those things she could actually order online, Sky woke up with a cry and demanded Sarah's attention.

Though her cries were still piercing Sarah's ears, at least this time, there were no lightbulbs blowing. Sensing that he was safe now, Mr Smith agreed to find the things on the first list so that all Sarah would have to do later was pick her favourites. He was not a personal shopping assistant, as he insisted, but since the world didn't need saving right now, he would help. Just this once.

Leaving him to that, Sarah gingerly began to rock Sky in her arms in an attempt to calm her down.

'What's wrong with you, baby, mhm?' She asked but of course, there was no answer, only crying. Perhaps - no, probably - another bottle was in order; Sarah didn't know for sure how often babies needed to be fed but she was reasonably certain that they got hungry more often than adults or even teenagers.

Doing things one-handedly proved to be quite the challenge and Sarah found a new appreciation for all the mothers who did this without ever mentioning it.

How had Aunt Lavinia managed? Was this how she had felt when she had suddenly ended up with her infant niece, barely older than Sky was now, and absolutely no idea how to take care of a baby? Sarah had never doubted that Aunt Lavinia had loved her but there had also never been doubt that she wasn't what people would have considered a conventional mother. Or mother figure. Rushing off to work and research every day, sometimes bringing the baby along to the lab and otherwise leaving her with kind neighbours who liked children certainly wasn't the way other children had been raised.

Work. Another thing to consider, since she couldn't exactly take Sky along when she dealt with aliens. At least her normal job wasn't bound to an office, being one of the top journalists in the country did have its perks. Maybe she could do some more scientific, research based articles for a bit - they usually paid well enough and didn't require her to go out investigating. Perhaps Dr Rivers could be of assistance on that front.

Which still left Sarah with the very present problem of actually raising a baby. Finally, after what felt like forever, the bottle was ready and Sky latched onto it immediately.

'Looks like you were very hungry, weren't you? Well. You're eating now, so no more of that.' Talk to her like a grown up who understood her, Sarah decided, heaven forbid she started with the baby talk.

Walking around with a baby in your arms wasn't as easy as it looked at first - even babies got heavy after a while, so she made her way back over to the sitting room and made herself comfortable in the armchair. It felt like eternity since Clyde had sat there, first feeding Sky, even though it had only been this morning.

Sudden and unbidden, Sarah remembered the first time she fed Luke - well, offered him food, since she hadn't actually fed it to him. How much had changed since then, she marvelled, and how much she herself had changed. Who would have ever thought she'd voluntarily adopt a baby? She certainly hadn't.

It reminded her, though, of yet another thing that needed to be added to her to-do list. Adoption papers. And she really had to talk to Kate to-

'Ow!' A tiny hand had, with surprising strength, pulled on her hair and Sarah looked down at Sky. She needed more hands. Two weren't enough if you were holding a baby and a bottle and needed to detangle tiny babyfists from your hair. 'Let go, Sky, please? Oh, you're finished with the bottle? Right, maybe - ah, yes.'

Smiling, a little proud of herself, Sarah managed to set the almost empty bottle on the table, freeing one hand to take care of her hair. Immediately, Sky grabbed her finger in lieu of the hair and Sarah sighed once again.

'What now, hm? Oh, you need to burp, don't you? That much I know...now let's see.' Gingerly, she manoeuvred Sky upright to her shoulder where she had, in hindsight, placed a soft towel earlier. Not exactly what you were supposed to be using but since she didn't have any of the proper cloth, now that the one Sky arrived in had disappeared, she had to improvise. Patting her back, she waited for her baby to burp.

 _Her baby_. Now _that_ was a thought. Strange, but surprisingly not unpleasant.

'I can't carry you around all day, you know?' Sarah mused after Sky had finally burped and was settled back into her arms. 'And I can't have you sleep in my bed, I don't want to roll onto you. I'd crush you. Let's see if we can find you a bed, shall we?'

Wandering around the house, rocking the baby while talking to it, to this tiny person in her arms, felt strangely natural, Sarah found as she was looking for something she could turn into a bed for Sky. In the end, she settled for the old classic: one of her wicker laundry baskets with one of the big pillows inside and another small, soft towel as a duvet. She thought about using one of the fleece blankets she kept in the linen cupboard for cuddling up on cold days, but during her brief research earlier she had read somewhere that big blankets were safety hazards for infants of Sky's age. So, until she got something more appropriate to wrap her in, the towels would have to do.

Thankfully, Sky seemed to find her makeshift bed comfortable enough because after changing, she was all too happy to doze off in the basket. Since she didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone just yet, Sarah carefully carried the basket back up to the attic in order to place the orders with baby supplies and take care of the formalities. Also, call Kate. And Liz, even if she was neither a physician nor currently on earth.

She was just about to start writing the cover up article on the blackout this morning - had it really just been a day?- when she heard steps coming up the stairs, accompanied by soft whispers. She couldn't help but smile. Of course Rani and Clyde would come to check on her - them. Coming to think of it, they had probably alerted Luke, or told him to call her earlier as well.

'You can come in, you know?' She called softly and a moment later, the two of them pushed into the attic.

'Hey,' Rani smiled, her gaze immediately drawn to the wicker basket on the coffee table. 'Is she alright?'

'Are _you_ alright?' Clyde added, giving Sarah Jane herself a scrutinising look. She nodded.

'I'm fine. So is Sky.'

'What's going to happen to her?'

'Well.' Sarah hesitated, then took a deep breath, looking square at her young friends. 'Sky is going to stay here, with me. It's not like she can go anywhere else.'

'Are you going to adopt her, then?'

'I suppose so, yes. Mr Smith is currently drawing up the papers so everything is in order.' She shrugged sheepishly. 'I can't exactly go through child services, can I?'

'Guess not,' Clyde agreed, peeking at the baby again. Neither he nor Rani were about to mention Luke's rather upset call earlier, asking them to please check on his mum because when he had spoken to her, she had been more than a little distraught. They had decided to wait a little, but looking at Sarah Jane now, everything seemed to be fine.

'Is there anything we can do?' Rani pulled him out of his thoughts, 'I mean, we'll babysit, of course, won't we Clyde? But do you need anything else, like -' She broke off, out of her depth and clearly not sure what exactly they could do for Sarah Jane.

'I think we're set for now,' Sarah smiled, 'but maybe you could come over tomorrow after school? By then I may have a better idea of what I could use help with.' So clearly, Sarah Jane wasn't sure what she needed either. But that was fine, Clyde thought. New mums were like that, and Sarah Jane was a new mum now. Sort of. And she was still Sarah Jane. She would figure this out, somehow.

He smiled back. 'Should we get out of your hair then? Before we wake little Sparky here?'

'She's not so sparky anymore, Clyde, remember?'

'Oh, I think she'll always be "Sparky", Rani. Now, off home with you two, spend the evening with your mums and _relax_. I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Alright,' they both laughed, hugging Sarah Jane before letting her usher them out onto the landing and towards the stairs. 'See you tomorrow!'

They could see themselves out, so she watched them skip down the stairs, waiting until she heard the front door shut before wandering back inside the attic to finish up work while Sky was still asleep.

'Do you think she's alright?' Rani worried, chewing her lip as she looked at Clyde. 'I mean, it's a baby, and it's Sarah Jane…'

'Yeah, exactly.' Clyde grinned. 'She's Sarah Jane. She'll be great.'

It was at least one vote of confidence that Sarah felt she sorely needed as she wasn't quite so sure herself.

Glancing at her sleeping daughter - her daughter, that would take some getting used to - again to ensure herself that she was, indeed still fast asleep and fine, she turned to Mr Smith, who, still wary of Sky, opened up silently.

'Mr Smith, could you please call this this-' she typed in a long string of numbers, '-number?'

'That number belongs to a covered line directly into UNIT headquarters.'

'Yes. I know. Just call it, please?'

Mr Smith didn't grace her with an answer and instead dialed the number. She could have called with a normal phone but this was a delicate matter and Mr Smith would ensure that none of the conversation she was about to have could be recorded. Not that she expected it to be, but better safe than sorry.

It only took a moment for the line to click and a picture flickered onto the screen.

'Aunt Sarah?' There was a look of worried confusion on Kate Stewart's face as she realised who was calling her. Sarah shot her a small smile.

'How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not "Aunt Sarah", _Tiger_.' They both knew she didn't mean it, and that she actually took the time to get back at her quip was a telltale sign for Kate that whatever the reason for her call was, neither the universe nor the world were about to end.

'Why are you calling, Aunt Sarah?'

'I need your help, Kate.'

'What's wrong? Are you in trouble - or Luke? I know you don't like guns, but I can-'

'It's nothing like that, no. And keep the guns far away - I got a baby today.'

' _I'm sorry, what?!_ ' Kate stared at her, utter bafflement unhidden on her face, and Sarah couldn't help look a little sheepish.

'A baby. A daughter. Sky.' She stepped aside, allowing Kate to look at the basket behind her, Sky sleeping inside.

'A baby,' Kate repeated slowly, then blinked at Sarah. 'Aren't you…I'm sorry. Who's her father?'

'What? No! Kate! I didn't _have_ a baby, I _got_ a baby! I found her on my doorstep this morning - because where else would you take an alien baby -'

'You've adopted an alien?'

'No! She's human. Mostly, at least. The point is, I have a baby now and...and I know _nothing_ about babies.'

'Oh. _Oh.'_ Kate's eyes widened as she finally realised why Sarah had called her. She knew that until she got Luke, Sarah had pretty much isolated herself from everyone, so she didn't exactly have any friends who had her babysit - or friends who actually had children. 'Do you...want me to come by tonight?'

Sarah glanced at the time and shook her head. 'It's a little late now, don't you think? You'll want the full story - and I'm not sure even I know all of it - but that will take a while…Could you come by tomorrow, maybe? I'm a little out of my depth here,' she admitted, giving Kate such a hopeful look that Kate couldn't help but nod.

'I take the day off and bring breakfast?' She offered and Sarah nodded gratefully. That she didn't protest was, in Kate's eyes, proof enough that Sarah really was at a loss because usually, she would insist on trying to prepare something. Most of the time, they ended up going out for breakfast then, because the kitchen was airing. Poor Sarah. Raising a child, she wouldn't get around learning to cook. Though how she'd manage that, well. Even Liz, who held cooking in even lower regard than Sarah, was less apt at setting the kitchen afire. 'Nine good with you?'

'Yes - thank you, Kate.'

'Anytime - is there anything you need, anything you want me to bring?'

'I don't know what I need - maybe a mental check if I lost my mind, raising a baby at my age!' When she saw Kate's look, she sighed and shook her head. 'No, you don't need to bring anything...I don't think so, at least.'

'Fine. I'll see you tomorrow, then.'

'Yes - oh, Sky's waking up, I think. I better go -' She gestured towards the back of the room, where Sky was indeed gurgling happily, clearly awake now. Kate smiled at her.

'Of course. Goodnight, mama Sarah.' The call ended before Sarah could protest and Kate's laugh was still hanging in the air as she wandered back over to the sofa.

For now, Sky didn't seem to need anything but attention - which Sarah had no idea how to give her. How did one play with a baby that couldn't do anything but grab things yet? She had written an article about child development a few years ago and was reasonably certain that at Sky's age of not quite three months - according to Mr Smith - she wasn't yet at a stage where she could do very much at all.

'Well, I suppose we should go downstairs,' Sarah decided, brushing a finger over Sky's cheek, 'because you might be fine for now, but I'm actually getting hungry.' Not surprising, really, considering she had more or less skipped breakfast when Sky had arrived and then they had been so busy trying to not let her fall back into the hands of Ms Mayers that she had only had time for a quick muffin. That had been sometime mid morning and then they'd gone back to the power station - and after that, well. If she was being honest, food had been the last thing on her mind.

Which might explain, she thought, why she suddenly was so hungry. Before Luke, regular meals had never been of great concern for her - she was usually too busy to stick to a proper schedule, so most of the time she ended up eating on the go, when someone put food in front of her or she skipped it completely. But when Luke moved in, there was another person to think about, a person who depended on her to take care of them, so she had tried to adapt to something that at least faintly resembled a regular schedule. Until Luke had left for Uni, she hadn't even realised how used she had gotten to it herself, regular meals at reasonable times. Only, now that she was on her own again for most of the day, she found herself slipping back into old habits more and more often.

But she couldn't afford that now, she realised. She had agreed to raise Sky, which meant that she had yet another person depend on her - a person who wouldn't be as forgiving as Luke if she forgot a meal, a person who was really, totally, fully dependent on her because she was so small that she couldn't live on her own yet.

It was, Sarah found, a rather unsettling though and she once again wondered what on earth had possessed her to agree to this. She must have been out of her mind to say she'd raise a _baby_ \- but she couldn't panic about that now. Maybe tomorrow, when Kate (literally the only person she could think of who knew about aliens and her life and had both her trust and children of her own) was there because then at least there'd be someone to buffer the worst of it if she lost it. Right now, however, breaking down wasn't an option, so she tried to focus on preparing herself a somewhat healthy dinner without setting something on fire while still keeping an eye on the baby.

Sky's wicker basket was standing on the kitchen table and she was happily gurgling to herself, grabbing at the shadows from the lampshade on the ceiling. Half her attention on her, the other half on her supper - tomato salad with some greens and cheese, no actual cooking involved - Sarah went back to musing her future and the past day.

If she was being entirely honest, she wasn't even sure exactly how old she was, but she was fairly certain that she was far too old to raise a baby. At least in the capacity of 'mum' - grandmother, yes, but mother to a baby at fifty-nine? Men did it all the time, she thought briefly, but then again, men weren't usually that involved in raising their children.

Sarah knew that she didn't look her age - not even the official one - but actually looked younger than she was. Always had, really. She wasn't even sure how it worked with the time-travel, because it had often felt as if she hadn't aged at all while she had been on the TARDIS. But again, who knew how long she had even been travelling with the Doctor? She certainly didn't, though if her estimates were correct, it had been at least twice as long as the time that passed on earth during her absence. Which, in addition to the four years she had spent in Aberdeen, would put her in her mid-seventies.

Honestly, what had she been thinking? There was no way she was fit to raise a baby, she didn't know anything about them and even by earth time, she would be close to eighty by the time Sky was grown up.

And what would the neighbours say? It wasn't that Sarah cared about the gossip about herself, though she had been aware of its contents even before Gita had started relaying it to her in detail. But while she might not care, her _daughter_ would, in a few years, be confronted with it too - 'why are you living with your nana?' they would ask, and 'what about your parents?'. Questions she had no answer to, because if she was actually going to do this, she would be the only parent Sky knew. No grandparents, no father, no aunts and uncles - just her and Luke; mother, son and daughter.

When Sarah had been a child, she had wanted nothing more than for her parents to come one day and pick her up, take her home. She had loved Aunt Lavinia with all her might, but she hadn't exactly been the most motherly of women. Oh, she had cared and loved Sarah plenty, but she had a no-nonsense kind of attitude and feelings hadn't come easy to her. Until Sarah had come home from school one day in second grade, asking about family trees and where her parents were, it had never even occurred to her that maybe, her niece didn't know what 'death' meant yet. Much later, Sarah had often mused that perhaps her aunt's efforts to make her an independent woman had been a little too successful because her track record of close friendships was...meager. The few people she had maintained in touch with over the years were scattered across the globe - and the moon - or had died or disappeared.

Of course she had met Jo Grant - Jones - last year, which had been a treat, but she was such a scatterbrain that keeping in touch was seemingly impossible. Tegan sent the occasional email, but she was usually busy with her own life. There was Liz, of course, who had been transferred to the UNIT moon base about five years ago, the one friend she had always stayed in contact with and who still always came by for tea when she was on earth. They had clicked, when they first met - two independent women, stubborn to the core and unwilling to follow silly rules that had no point. The Brigadier's worst nightmare. To make it even worse, Doris had tagged along from time to time and he hated not knowing what they were gossiping about. But then he had died earlier this year and suddenly, her old friends were reduced to Doris and Liz.

There was Kate, of course, who, in a very complicated manner, could even be considered family (her stepmother was, after all, the widow of Sarah's uncle - whom she had never met), but Kate had her own children and a very important job that had left her little time for any kind of social life. That she had agreed to come by the next day was a testament to how distressed Sarah must have seemed.

Then there had been Harry, of course, but he was still MIA and no one had heard from him in years. As far as family went, Sarah thought, Harry had always been who she would have wanted as a part of hers. If Kate was a sort of niece, then Harry was her big brother, her protector, always looking after her. But even if he was still alive, which wasn't a given, he was out of reach, leaving her alone on that front too.

A few years ago, there had also been Josh and Nat but...well. She missed the two of them terribly and she knew that at least Nat liked children, but she hadn't spoken to either of them since she had come back from Dreamland.

Yet another thing that made her unsuitable as a mother for a baby. With Luke, explaining her past had been easy enough. He had been created by aliens and had been old enough to understand that her life hadn't always been the one she was leading now. He had been able to see that not all the things that happened before he came into her life had been good. She had kept the worst from him, of course, but after the Daleks had stolen earth, he had asked about it and how could she have denied him an answer?

It happened often enough, especially in the early days, that one of them woke up, plagued by nightmares, and Sarah had promised to never mention to his friends that it wasn't unusual that he ended up wandering into her bedroom at night because he was scared. Luke might have been a teenager in appearance but he had been little older than Sky was otherwise, an infant still, so she had allowed him to slip under her covers and held him until they both fell asleep again. Just as often, she sat by his bedside, stroking his hair when his dreams didn't wake him and there had even been nights when he had come barging in because her own screams had woken him.

Things had gotten better, nightmarish plagues only coming by from time to time, but since Luke had left for Uni, Sarah found herself up more and more often in the depth of night, woken by yet another horrible dream that truly was memories twisted together with her worst fears.

How could she be looking after a baby when she was more likely to wake it up screaming than the other way around? That couldn't be healthy, not how things were supposed to be, right? She couldn't do this, could she?

Sarah hadn't even noticed that there were silent tears running down her cheeks again and she had started to gently caress the soft down of Sky's hair. She had stopped gurgling, instead stared at Sarah with wide eyes now.

'Oh Sky,' she whispered, her croaking voice surprising herself, 'what am I going to do with you?'

The answer, for now, was simple: Feed her, and then maybe see if she could get some sleep herself. What she was going to do in the longer run, Sarah didn't know yet. How could she? She had only known Sky for a day, but she had wormed her way into her heart already and while she had doubts and arguments upon arguments why she shouldn't keep her, the thought of giving her up almost hurt physically. Her wonderful son had softened her heart, she realised. It had taken him some time, she had been so cold and reserved still back then, until she finally allowed him into her heart and then it had taken him no time to warm her soul and have those walls come tumbling down. Now, with Sky...she had already firmly established her place right next to Luke and Sarah had no idea how she could possibly let go of her again.

Carefully, she carried the baby's basket up into her bedroom, then took Sky out to burp and change her once more.

Perhaps, she thought as she switched off the light, her eyes fixed on the baby next to her bed, perhaps somehow, she would figure out a way through this after all.


	2. Day Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An old friend drops in to reassure Sarah Jane. And then there's a lot of shopping to be done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, everyone, for all the lovely notes on the first chapter. This is one of my favourite stories that I've every written/am writing, so it means a lot that you enjoy it as well.  
> Have a wonderful weekend everyone, and stay well!
> 
> The sandbox belongs to the beep, but I love to play in it!

It was no klischee that new parents were often dead on their feet. Sarah had always thought it was an exaggeration, but it turned out: it really wasn’t. 

Perhaps it had been her own fault for letting Sky nap all evening instead of somehow occupying her somehow to keep her up and awake, but she had woken up twice during the night and Sarah hadn’t had the faintest idea why she could possibly be crying. It had taken her almost half an hour of trying to rock her back to sleep before she had realised that babies had to be fed during the night as well. That had been sometime around one, certainly not long enough to get through a full sleep cycle for Sarah. By the time she got Sky to go back to sleep, it had been past two in the morning and unless you counted nighttime alien hunting, she couldn’t even remember the last time she was still up at that hour. 

The second time Sky had woken her was in the wee hours of morning, just before five, way too early, way too little sleep - but Sky kept crying and crying and this time, neither changing her nor trying another bottle helped. She hadn’t even wanted the latter and Sarah had ended up carrying her around the house until she thought she’d collapse if she didn’t sit down, tired as she was, so she curled herself up in the sitting room and kept rocking Sky. By the time her eyelids finally dropped and her cries turned into small, half asleep sniffs, Sarah was crying herself. She was exhausted, mentally and physically, and she wanted to get back into bed and sleep all day, but that wasn’t an option, not with a baby to take care off. She wasn’t even sure if she could fathom the stairs right now. Looking at the baby nestled against her chest, she decided not to risk it - bad enough if she broke a leg slipping on the stairs, but endangering the baby? No, better make herself comfortable right here on the sofa - and she had to get up soon anyway, because Kate would be over at nine...

Luckily, Kate had thought to not only bring breakfast, but also her keys to Sarah’s house. She’d just evaded Gita, who had been waiting, bursting with curiosity to learn more about Sarah at every opportunity she got and now with beautiful baby Sky...but her shop opened at half ten, so she just about missed Kate’s car pulling up the drive of number 13.

She knocked, twice, but when there was no answer, Kate let herself in. She wasn’t terribly worried, Sarah could take care of herself in case something happened, and when she was up in the attic - where she seemed to spend most of her time - it wasn’t unusual that she didn’t hear the doorbell, let alone someone knocking. 

So when Kate, on her way to the kitchen, heard faint noises from the living room, she startled. Carefully, she placed her bags next to the door and peeked inside. The noises were coming from the sofa, of which she only saw the back from her place by the door. Oh, well, here goes nothing, she thought and stepped in. 

And stopped dead in her tracks.

She should have been expecting it, really. After all, she had raised two children on her own - she remembered the trials of motherhood in the beginning well enough. How many times had she ended up like that, she wondered, fast asleep on the sofa (or the rocking chair)? But this was Aunt Sarah, Sarah Jane Smith - as long as Kate had known her, she had seemed so indomitable, above all these mere worldly trifles. Seeing her like this, so very, very human, made Kate smile softly. Liz had always said that Sarah was just like them, but until now, she still had found it hard to believe that sometimes.

With a shake of her head, Kate pulled herself from her reverie and crouched down next to the sofa.

‘Hello, darling,’ she whispered and immediately, the baby on Sarah’s chest fixed it’s bright blue eyes on her. She held out a finger that she grasped for, holding it tight. Kate smiled and carefully used her free hand to shake Sarah’s arm, wrapped tightly around Sky to keep her from falling. It was funny, Kate thought, how there were some instincts like this, that never even left you when you were fast asleep. ‘I’m Kate, and you must be Sky. Let’s see if we can do anything for you, mhm, and let your mama sleep a little longer?’

Of course, Sky didn’t answer but she didn’t protest when Kate plucked her from her mother’s arms. Immediately, Sarah stirred, and Kate used her free hand to gently press her back into the pillows. 

‘It’s alright, Aunt Sarah, I’ve got her.’ Sarah seemed to recognise her voice because she nodded without opening her eyes and relaxed again. Throwing her one last glance, Kate carried Sky into the kitchen, picking up her bags along the way, and set on preparing breakfast. 

‘You didn’t have to do that, you know?’ She whipped around and found herself staring at Sarah, who was leaning against the doorframe, smiling at her. Apparently, she hadn’t stayed on the sofa all that long because she had dressed and, judging by her still damp hair, showered in the forty-something minutes since Kate had arrived. 

‘Oh, but I did,’ she grinned and half hugged Sarah, trying not to squish Sky between them. Once she had let go, Sarah’s hands immediately reached for Sky, seemingly automatic and Kate looked down. ‘I think Mummy wants you back, darling.’

‘I’m not so sure about the “mummy” part yet,’ Sarah confessed. ‘What am I even supposed to do with a baby? I know nothing about raising a child.’ Really, that shower this morning and knowing Sky was in good hands for a bit had done wonders to calm her down. Or perhaps it was the prospect of talking to an adult with an actual understanding of the situation as a whole. Kate just shrugged at her words.

‘No parent ever does - it’s part of the job description.’

‘Yes, but most parents figure it out before they’re old enough to be their child’s grandparent.’

‘What are you talking about? Just because you’re a few years older - there are plenty of women having children at your age.’

‘I’m turning sixty in two months.’

‘You’re joking.’

‘No. I’ve been thinking about this last night and with years on the TARDIS and everything, I should be somewhere in my mid-seventies now.’

‘If TARDIS travel does anything to you, it makes you younger, Aunt Sarah, not older.’

‘What?’ 

Kate shrugged and nodded at the frying pan. ‘Beans, bacon and tomatoes, right? And mushrooms?’

‘Yes - no sausage, please - but no, Kate, what are you talking about?’

‘Well.’ She put their plates down in front of them and sat down before answering. Sarah was staring at her, completely ignoring her breakfast. ‘It's nothing, really. You know we record all of the Doctor’s assistants and companions.’

‘Yes, I know. You tried to wipe my memory of that.’ 

'And I would still like to know why that didn’t work but that’s a matter for another time. What I mean is that everyone I met, no matter how old, they all seemed so...young. Energetic. Definitely younger than they should have been. You too.'

'That doesn't mean that travelling in the TARDIS makes you younger.'

'No, but it doesn't mean that you stay completely unaffected either. Just look at yourself.'

'Meaning?'

'You just said it yourself. You should, by all means be well over sixty, but if I passed you on the street, I'd put you in your early fifties, tops.'

'Oh.' Sarah got the distinct feeling that she should be flattered but something in the way Kate said it didn't make it sound like much of a compliment. 

'What I’m trying to say, Aunt Sarah, is that you shouldn’t worry so much. You’ll be fine.’ At that, Sarah huffed but still, Kate’s reassurance and faith in her capabilities felt good. Still, she gave Kate a condescending look.

‘I don’t know how,’ she admitted.

‘You’ll learn - you’re not alone, you’ve got -’ The sound of the doorbell cut her off, but there was a sudden look of relief on Sarah’s face.

‘That should be the order I placed last night. Would you…?’ She nodded at Sky, who was still nuzzled against her. Hopefully the car seat was among the delivery, she wasn’t quite sure how to eat while holding the baby.

‘Of course.’ Without further ado, Kate took Sky from Sarah again so she could make her way into the hall and get the door. She hadn’t actually planned on following her but then Sky began fussing the moment Sarah left her sight and, with a sigh, Kate stepped towards the door. As soon as Sarah was in the same room again, Sky quietened again and Kate couldn’t help but wonder if maybe there was something more alien about her than Sarah claimed.

Silently, they watched as Sarah directed the postman to place the parcels - half a dozen of them - at the foot of the stairs before tipping him generously.

‘I think that’s the car seat - does it need to be assembled?’ She cut open the biggest parcel with her sonic lipstick - of course, Kate thought - and pulled out all the styrofoam that was supposed to protect the good. It turned out that no, the car seat itself did not need to be assembled, so while Kate strapped Sky, who kept looking at them with wide eyes, in, Sarah proceeded to open the other parcels to find a blanket to cover her with. 

‘There you go.’ With a satisfied smile, the two women regarded the baby, finally looking like she belonged and less like she had just been dumped on Sarah - which she had been, but that wasn’t the point. They looked at each other. 

‘Breakfast?’

‘Breakfast.’

While they were eating, Sarah finally recounted the entire story of how Sky came to be in her care in detail and Kate found herself shaking her head, speechless. She wasn’t quite sure if she was angry, relieved or worried about her friend, who technically was interfering in her jurisdiction, but UNIT wasn’t quite where she wanted it to be yet, not quite fueled by ‘Science leads’ and rather a ‘all guns blazing’ organisation still. She had never met the Doctor, though she was fairly certain that she would run into him sooner or later, and unlike UNIT, Sarah had always been perfectly willing to deal with aliens in a civil, non-violent way. Something that she was fighting for herself, but dragging UNIT along with her plans involved a lot of kicking and screaming from their side, so she really couldn’t blame Aunt Sarah for not wanting to get all tangled up with them again. Or Torchwood, for that matter, though ever since Canary Wharf and being reduced to the Cardiff branch, they had been rather quiet and from what Sarah had mentioned in passing, she somehow not only knew Captain Jack Harkness, but also liked him well enough.

In the end, Kate settled for shaking her head and trying to reprimand Sarah for breaking into a nuclear power station, which was only graced with another huff and a mumble along the lines of ‘wasn’t even remotely as bad as the first time’. Yet another thing to ask about another time, Kate decided as she began to clear the table. Sarah gave her an exasperated look but didn’t actually voice her protest, since she was busy prepping a bottle for Sky.

‘You need to get a different washing powder,’ Kate said, looking at the pile of fabric next to Sarah’s washing machine.

‘Why? What for? What’s wrong with mine?’

‘Baby have sensitive skin.’ She shrugged. ‘I think it’s also something about the scent, but…’

‘Right. Sky’ll just have to deal with this one for now,’ Sarah decided. ‘Better harsh washing powder than putting her in unwashed clothing.’ Which Kate really couldn’t argue with, seeing as it was the main reason Sarah had insisted on unpacking the rest of the parcels before doing anything else. 

It was somewhat surreal to help Sarah Jane, who had always been a mix of an aunt and a big sister to Kate, get the hang of all the things she’d have to learn to raise her baby. Boiling pacifiers and deciding which formulae was best, just to name a few, then looking over the lists with things Sarah thought she still needed, crossing out a few items and adding some others.

Sarah had left her to do that in the kitchen, claiming she had something to do upstairs, and had disappeared. Kate hadn’t paid too much attention and just nodded to say she’d heard her, her focus never leaving her task. Thank goodness she’d taken the day off, she thought, she’d have to take Aunt Sarah and Sky shopping.

‘Kate?’ Her focus broken by Sarah’s voice, she looked up and turned towards her. Sarah was standing in the door, a slim file in her hands. ‘I know this might be a little sudden but I need you to sign these.’

Frowning, Kate took the offered file and flicked it open. Her eyes widened.

‘These are for taking legal guardianship of Sky.’

‘Yes.’ Sarah ran a hand through her hair, suddenly looking incredibly tired. ‘I thought about it, Kate, and if something happens to me, I need to know Sky is taken care of. Luke is old enough, he wouldn’t go into care, but Sky…’ She broke off, shook her head. ‘There are still alien traces in her DNA, and Luke is so young, he’s still little more than a child himself - I couldn’t ask him to look after her.’

‘Sarah. Nothing is going to happen to you.’

‘You don’t know that.’

‘Yes, I do.’

‘No, Kate, you can’t know. No one knows what the future holds - it’s not like I’m planning on going anywhere. But this - this is about Sky. My life is dangerous; I didn’t have children for a reason. Most of the time, I don’t have all that much say in things, they tend to spiral out of control whether I want it or not. No, this is about Sky because I can’t guarantee that everything will always work out. I can try - I will try, but I can’t guarantee it. Please, Kate.’ There were tears swimming in her eyes and Kate’s heart soared as she added, very softly, ‘I wouldn’t trust anyone else with her.’

For a moment, Kate just sat there, thinking about the implications, then she reached for her pen and, in one fluid motion, set her name under the document. The look of relief on Sarah’s face was almost palpable and Kate couldn’t help but wonder how few people she still held close.

‘If something happens to you, Aunt Sarah, I will of course take care of Sky. But it is an unnecessary precaution because you will be just fine.’

‘Thank you, Kate.’ She placed the file at the other end of the table and turned to look at Kate’s notes. ‘What’s this about?’

‘Oh, well, you said Sky was grown to be a weapon - if she was going to self-destruct anyway, there’d be no point in boasting her immune system. You should take her to see a doctor and get her shots done -’

‘I didn’t even think about that.’ Sarah hesitated. ‘I can’t take her to a normal doctor, can I?’

‘No, I don’t think that would be a good idea.’

‘I would ask Liz, or Harry, but…’ The unsaid rest of her sentence hung between them for a moment. Liz was on the moon, she wasn’t an option for this, not to mention that she wasn’t even a physician - even if she had seen to her fair share of patients over the years. Harry though? Harry Sullivan was a sore topic for all of them, but especially for Sarah. To the day, no one knew what had happened to him during the mission he had been sent on almost a decade and a half ago. 

‘What about Dr Jones?’ Kate suggested, trying to pry Sarah’s thoughts away from her dear friend. She got a frown in return.

‘Who?’

‘I thought you knew her - Dr Martha Jones?’

‘Martha! Of course I know her - do you think she’d be willing to come here to have a look at Sky?’

‘I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.’

‘I’ll give her a call later -’

‘You have her number?’

Sarah shrugged. ‘We spent hours pulling the earth back into place, we had plenty of time to exchange details.’

‘Of course you did,’ Kate mumbled, shaking her head. After a moment, she looked up at Sarah again. ‘I was going to suggest a trip to the shopping center now but -’

‘Nothing but. You know what I need to get, you have a big car and you only have today off - there’s no need to wait around wasting time.’

‘In that case, let’s go.’

It turned out to have been a very good idea that they had decided to take Kate’s car instead of Sarah’s. Not only was it much easier to strap Sky’s carrier on the back seat, they also had a lot more room to pack all the things they knew they needed.

Even if she would have never expected it from herself, Sarah had to admit that once they were in the shops with all the childcare and baby supplies, Kate’s sudden enthusiasm for equipping her with everything that could possibly be of use was quite infectious and she found herself going overboard just as much. It really was rather fun, thinking about what Sky would wear that would make her look sweet and not absolutely hideous - because there was a shocking amount of rather ridiculous baby clothing on display as well. There were also toys and another blanket, this one not to wrap Sky in - which, apparently, she shouldn’t actually do - but to place her on on the floor. Kate also suggested a sort of comforter bag that reminded Sarah of a cocoon and that seemed to be a favourite to place a child in to sleep instead of covering them with a normal, if tiny, duvet.

One of the shop assistants suggested they should also get a mobile to put above the cradle, which Sarah had ordered the night before but that would only be delivered the following day. And perhaps, Kate added, a second mobile, dangling from a stand that she could place Sky under when she was lying on her blanket.

Then, of course, they also needed a pram, which Sarah had wanted to test before buying, and Kate insisted on getting one now. Her treat, she said. Besides, Sarah would never be able to fit the still boxed pram in her car. Since she did have a very good point there, Sarah gave in with only minimal protest and by the time they had everything they could possibly think to need, even Kate’s car had little more room for anything else.

‘I can’t even remember the last time I spend this much in one go!’ Though it wasn’t a secret that children - babies - were expensive, even Kate had to admit that most new parents didn’t go and buy everything at once, having months to built up an inventory of everything they needed, and she distinctly remembered that a lot of things like prams and cribs would be second-hand from friends who didn’t need them anymore. Sarah had neither luxury, so she had just spent a small fortune - Aunt Lavinia’s money, she had shrugged when Kate, slightly worried at the bill, had asked. ‘There’s still more than enough to take care of everything Sky needs.’ And Luke, but that went without saying.

Luckily, they didn’t actually have to unload everything on their own again, because the moment they pulled up in front of the house again, Rani and Clyde came running over, delighted to see Sky and more than willing to help carry everything in. Even Haresh was dragged over by Gita, who kept chatting about how it felt just like yesterday that Rani was a Sky’s age and oh, should she go feed her? Which Sarah would have been happy to agree with, had Sky not started wailing the moment Gita reached for her. 

‘Oh, don’t you worry, dear,’ Gita had waved Sarah’s apology off with a smile, ‘Rani was just like that, wouldn’t have anyone hold her but me and Haresh - not even my mother! She was so put out by it, but if that’s what those little darlings want, it’s what they want, don’t you, darling?’ She cooed at Sky again and then offered to bring over some biscuits for everyone, then they’d have tea and help set everything up. Sarah didn’t even have time to protest before she was gone, disappearing into her own house.

‘Maybe you should make tea - and I think it’s time for another bottle?’ Kate suggested over Sky’s cries and, sensing that arguing would get her nowhere, Sarah made her way into the kitchen, leaving her friends to take care of the, well, shopping.

Her friends. What a strange thought. Or was it really? She had never really thought of Gita and Haresh as friends but there was no denying that in the few years they had been her neighbours, she had become closer to them than she had with any of the other people on the street, safe, perhaps, Alan. It must be the children, she thought, that brought them together, something to bond over even if she kept most of her life secret. But even five years ago, she would have never thought she’d ever end up here, with a real family and friends she could rely on. 

The thought made unbidden tears well up in her eyes and Sarah had to blink rapidly to stop them from falling. Taking a deep breath, she then turned to Sky and finally took her out of the car seat. To her enormous surprise, she stopped crying the moment she was in Sarah’s arms and unlike with her tears, Sarah did nothing to hold back a bright smile.

‘You wanted to be held, didn’t you? And -’ she raised the baby a little, sniffing, ‘- I think you’re also due for a change. But Kate thinks you will be hungry soon, and since she knows a lot more about these things, I trust her on that. So, let’s see if we can get you your bottle and then we’ll go upstairs and get you changed - and change that romper as well, there should be some dry ones by now. Does that sound good?’

Of course, Sky didn’t answer, but she did reach up for Sarah’s necklace. Gently prying it from her small fingers, Sarah reached back over to the car seat and handed Sky the little stuffed ball the shop lady had kindly unpacked for her right there. Baby occupied, Sarah set about preparing Sky’s bottle, still one handedly because if Sky wanted to be held...well. She’d rather take a little longer than have to listen to those heart wrenching cries. 

And wasn’t that odd, Sarah wondered, gently prompting Sky to latch onto the bottle, how fast she had become so impossibly important to her that the mere thought of her tears cut right through her heart?

By the time Sky finished her bottle, every single shopping bag had been deposited in the hall and Kate had taken the liberty to show Haresh and Clyde to the guestroom Sarah had, in the morning, pointed out to her as Sky’s designated room. After all, if they offered to take the big and heavy things upstairs, who was she to fight them? While she and Sarah were both quite self-reliant in most things and wouldn’t necessarily ask for help, when it was shoved on them, neither of them would deny it.

Rani and Clyde, knowing their way around her kitchen all too well from years of spending almost every afternoon over, relieved her efforts to make tea and Sarah went upstairs in order to finally change Sky. That certainly would take some getting used to, she thought, scrunching up her nose. But, once she was clean and dressed in a fresh romper - dark blue with stars printed all over it, really quite sweet - Sky seemed happy enough to be taken downstairs again.

Where she was promptly handed around everyone once, to be suitably admired and cooed over - much to Sarah’s chargain, as she had never really seen the point of this particular custom when she was shown the babies of the few friends who had any. With Rani’s parents present, it was impossible to bring up anything alien-related, which meant that Kate and Sarah found themselves making polite but utterly boring adult conversation while Clyde and Rani had taken Sky to look through her new toys.

In a way, Sky was their new toy, even if Sarah would never say that aloud. Which didn’t make it any less true: For now, Sky was a novelty and though she deep down knew it wouldn’t be the case, Sarah sincerely hoped that their interest in her daughter wouldn’t wane once that had worn off.

It felt like hours before it could be considered polite to usher the Chandra’s back to their own home, though Rani promised to be by again the next day after school, seeing as their arrangement today hadn’t worked out. Kate had been the next one to leave shortly after, hugging Sarah tightly and pressing a gentle kiss on Sky’s head.

‘I think Fiz is going to throw a fit if I’m not home soon,’ she joked, glancing at the message her daughter had sent. ‘She’ll want to come by once she sees those pictures of Sky, so better be prepared.’

‘She’s always more than welcome here, as you very well know. Give her a hug from me?’

‘Will do. And you call me if you need anything else - advice, someone to talk to, help -’

‘Thank you, Kate.’ Sarah’s voice was sincere. ‘I mean it, thank you for all you did today, I don’t even know where to start -’

‘It was my pleasure, Aunt Sarah - and that is Osgood, I better take that - call me!’ Sarah, Sky propped against her shoulder, watched as Kate made her way to her car, rapidly speaking into her mobile. She waved one last time and Sarah used Sky’s little hand to wave back, then Kate was gone too and only Clyde was left.

‘Aunt Sarah?’ He asked with a grin and she shot him a glare.

‘The Brig insisted on Kate calling me that when she was a little girl and she stuck with it, so don’t you dare start it too.’

‘I didn’t plan to Auntie Sarah.’

‘Oi, cheek!’ They both laughed and Sarah poured the last of the tea into their mugs. ‘You know, things will change a little around here,’ she said slowly, a frown settling on her face when Clyde froze. It took a moment, but then Sarah realised what he was worried about.

‘Clyde,’ she began gently, squeezing his shoulder, ‘You will always be welcome here. Anytime, even if it’s in the middle of the night. But Sky’s a baby, so-’

‘So you need to change your life because you have to accommodate her.’ At her slightly surprised look, he gave a nonchalant shrug. ‘My dad just went through the same with his new wife. There’s just so much that has to be done.'

'Yes. It's going to take some time to get everything organised and figure out where things will go from here - I might have to ask you and Rani for a little more help until I have Sky properly settled. With the aliens, of course, not looking after Sky.' 

'But we'll babysit her too, whenever you need us to.' 

'Oh no, I couldn't impose that on you - though it would be a lot safer than aliens. But you two have to live your lives too, and looking after a baby wasn't even "cool" when I was your age.'

'We'll help with anything you need,’' Clyde assured her again and then proceeded to put his arms around her for a proper hug. He didn't usually go around hugging people, but Sarah Jane was an exception, simply because giving her a hug always made you feel better. She didn’t even hesitate to hug him back and gave him a warm smile..

'I appreciate that offer, Clyde. Thank you - and now home with you, before you mum calls me again to ask where you are!' They both laughed and, waving at Sky, Clyde slipped out the front door, leaving Sarah and Sky alone.

Sarah hadn't even realised how taxing so many people at once could be until they were all gone and she felt like she could breathe again. 

‘Just the two of us now, mhm? What are we going to do?’ 

In the end, they didn’t do much of anything because Sky was more than content to lie on her blanket and play with the mobile while Sarah made herself a light supper and another cup of tea - decaf - to curl up on the sofa with. It was that kind of evening, she found, where all you wanted was to immerse yourself in a good book and relax after a long day. And there was no question that it had, indeed, been a long day, so Sarah took her chance to relax very seriously.

Sky, who, unlike the previous day, hadn’t spent the entire afternoon asleep, started fussing after a while, clearly tired and grumpy because she wasn’t quite willing to go back to sleep yet. So Sarah gently picked her up and carried her upstairs to get her changed into one of the sleeping bag like nightdresses Kate had talked her into buying, because apparently, they were safest. Sarah didn’t quite see why yet, but then again, she still didn’t know anything about babies, so who was she to judge?

At least Sky seemed happy enough to be wrapped up like that and it took barely any time for her to fall asleep once she had been placed in her brand new cradle. For a while, Sarah just sat on her bed, gently rocking it back and forth, watching Sky.

Her daughter. It still hadn’t sunk in quite yet. But much of the dread she had felt in the morning was gone - at least for now. 

Sarah contemplated going upstairs to get some work done and check in with Mr Smith but she felt the lack of sleep from the previous night and with all the running around she had done today, it was far too tempting to simply slip into bed and catch up on sleep.

Her last coherent thought was that really, she would have never thought she’d ever be a mother but please, let not every night be like last?


	3. Day Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another dear friend comes by to meet Sky. Also, everyday life is still happening - Sarah thinks she'll manage. Somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I got some comments that you all very much like Sarah Jane's support system, I think you'll all enjoy this chapter. There won't be people coming by every chapter, but I am planning on having a few DW characters - both classic and new - show up. So really, if there's anyone you'd like to see, let me know and I'll see what I can do :)  
> I hope everyone is doing well in light of the current situation - stay safe, everyone!

Sarah considered herself very fortunate because her wish had, indeed, come true. Sky had woken up only once, about halfway through the night, and getting her another bottle - the bottle warmer was indeed far quicker than the microwave - changed and back to sleep was a matter of less than an hour. 

By the time her alarm went off - on extra soft, so the chance of Sky sleeping through it was higher - Sarah felt well rested again, and a little more ready to face the day than she had the previous morning. She took the baby monitor upstairs with her, finally checking in with Mr Smith. There was a group of Aiglypons that had landed by the park but they had dealt with them before and it had turned out that they were benign and had singled earth out as their currently most popular holiday and sightseeing planet. There were groups of about twenty Aiglypons that visited every few months, sometimes even dropping by Bannerman Road to say hello, so Sarah decided that unless something came up unexpectedly - like another Slitheen invasion, they were overdue already, going by their previous rate - Mr Smith could deal with things on his own for a little longer while Sarah took care of things downstairs.

And oh, things downstairs were a mess. The day before they had unpacked only the most important things, so there were still dozens of bags waiting to be taken care of. 

Sighing deeply, Sarah began by singling out all those that held clothes and things that had to be washed, which seemed like the most logical thing to start with. Maybe she could get a load in the machine before Sky woke up. By the looks of it, she’d be laundering baby gear for at least three days. 

The thought made Sarah chuckle. Even a week ago, she would have laughed at everyone who’d have suggested such a thing, but she was in a surprisingly positive mood this morning.

As if to prove her enthusiasm wrong, a loud cry broke her early morning reverie. The baby monitor was superfluous, really, because Sky’s crying was audibe in the scullery and probably all the way down the street. With a soft sigh, Sarah made her way back to her bedroom to take care of her baby.

She stopped halfway up the stairs, startled. Just yesterday, the thought of Sky as ‘her baby’ had made her flinch; today she was startled at her own lack of reaction to it. Sarah shook her head. No time to ponder that now. There were things that needed to be done. 

‘Good morning, poppet,’ she smiled and gently lifted Sky from her cradle. For a moment, she fell silent, staring at Sarah from her big blue eyes, then she started crying again. With a sigh, Sarah held her up a little and made a face. ‘You need changing.’

Until the changing table - and the other furniture - arrived, her bed would have to make do for changing nappies. And though Sarah understood the merit of the sleeping-bag-garment for safe sleeping, she decided that getting a kicking baby out of it again was decidedly not fun.

‘I suppose I should give you a bath,’ Sarah said suddenly, giving Sky a pointed look. The thought had come entirely unbidden and she had to admit, it was a frightening one. Oh, Kate had made her buy a bathtub to set up in the bathroom - Sarah had commented it looked indeed very much like the tub she used to bathe dolls in as a child - but so far, she hadn’t come across any instructions on how to bathe a baby. Because surely, bathing a baby would be a lot harder than a doll. Not in the least because babies would inevitably move around instead of being perfectly still. ‘Later.’

Once that was settled, they fell back into their little routine of wandering downstairs to feed Sky, preferably in the comfortable armchair in the living room. Now she even had proper muslin cloths to cover her clothes with; certainly a step up from the day before. 

‘Now what am I going to do with you all day?’ Sarah wondered, gently cupping Sky’s head. One day, she would have wild curls, almost the same colour Sarah’s own hair had been at that age, but for now, she only had some soft, light down that felt silky under her fingers. 

She smiled. Babies still looked rubbery, but Sky was alright. Kind of sweet, even. 

‘You know, Sky, you’ll grow up in a much different world than I did. And you’ll grow up learning all about the universe too, and maybe one day, you’ll go out there by yourself, travel and explore. It’s wonderful out there - but not always safe, you know? Not even here on earth, not for someone so little. So you’ll have some growing up to do, find out what you want.

‘They still tell you these days that girls can’t to this and girls can’t do that - but that’s not true, sweetheart, you hear me? You never believe that. It doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a boy or something else: you can be whatever you want to be. The Doctor - I’m sure you’ll meet him too, sooner or later, he keeps showing up, he’s my best friend too. Oh, he’ll love you, he always liked children. I never did, but you know what, Sky? I love you already, because you’re very special.’ She dropped a soft kiss on Sky’s forehead, right between those big, blue eyes that kept watching her intently. Sarah’s smile widened and she gently tapped the baby’s nose. ‘And you know why? Because you’re mine. My daughter - and I’ll warn you right now, I have no idea what I’m doing. So you be lenient, yes? We’re in this together.’

Sky gurgled in answer and reached her arms up, kicking the arm Sarah wasn’t holding her with and she carefully pushed her foot down, tucked it under her arm so Sky could grab her hand. She immediately latched onto her fingers and pulled them close and, curious about what she would do, Sarah let her. 

Perhaps if she had more experience with children, she wouldn’t have found it quite so fascinating but she could count the number of times she had held a child of Sky’s age - the last few days excluded - on one hand. Which brought up another rather logical question: How old was Sky? Of course, Mr Smith had said Sky’s physical age was three months but had she really been alive for three months or was that yet another matter of ‘physical age’ vs ‘real age’?

Maybe it was time to call Martha because surely, as a proper doctor, she would at least be able to narrow that down? Or maybe not - Sarah wasn’t even certain about it, but it was worth a try. Besides, she had to call Martha anyway.

Which meant freeing her hand from Sky’s surprisingly strong grip and setting her down on her blanket again, making sure she was occupied with her mobile before getting up to telephone Martha.

She answered after the third ring. 'Martha Jones speaking, hello?'

'Good morning, Martha, it's Sarah Jane. Do you have a moment?'

Martha laughed. 'For you? Always!' Sarah could hear her rummaging in the background, then, 'How can I help you?

'Well,' Sarah began, 'it's a long and somewhat unbelievable story.'

'Unbelievable for the general public or unbelievable for someone who travelled with the Doctor?'

'Seeing as I am still trying to get my head around it, I'd say the latter.'

'Okay…' Martha dragged the word out and it was clear that she was already intrigued. When Sarah now began to relay the events of the last few days, albeit in a slightly shortened fashion, she was listening intently and whenever she paused, Sarah thought she heard a pen scraping over paper. Yet another thing she liked about Martha, she was a very sensible young woman. 

'So let me get this straight,' she said once Sarah had finished her tale, 'you now have a baby to look after that you're going to raise as your daughter because she's part alien. And Kate not only knows about that, she also agrees that Sky would be safest with you?' 

'Yes.'

'You know, Sarah Jane, I think you're the only person in the world who could get away with that.' There was a hint of admiration in her voice and Sarah shrugged.

'I just happen to know the right people.'

'Sure,' Martha laughed, then sobered up again. 'I guess you'd like me to come over and have a look at the kid?'

'If you have time for that? It’s just that I can't exactly take her to a normal doctor and she's not like Luke, created as the perfect human resistant to most human illnesses - she'll need to get her shots and checkups.'

'I'd be more than happy to help you out there. I think I still owe you one.'

'And I told you that that isn't necessary -'

'Yes, it is. Listen, if you send me the data he has on Sky, I'll grab everything I need and drop by after work?'

'That'd be wonderful Martha, thank you.'

'Great, then I'll see you later! Gotta go, I think they just tossed over - oh, that's bad- listen, we'll chat later, yeah? Bye!' And she hung up, cursing whoever just screwed up whatever over at UNIT.

Shaking her head with a slightly exasperated smile, Sarah put the telephone back into the charging station and, with another glance at Sky, went into the scullery. The washing from the drier in the basket, the wet one into the drier and another load into the washing machine. 

Next was the matter of work, which Sarah had woefully neglected since Sky's arrival.

The basket Sky had spent her first night in was still in the attic and she didn't protest when Sarah placed her in it again so she could keep her close while she tended to her emails and focused on her latest article. It was a serious one, for a scientific journal she had done some work before. They wanted her report on a study concerning black holes, and wasn't she an expert on that? After all, she had had one in her attic for half a decade. 

There was another article, for Prof Rivers' latest project, that she did a first draft for but it wasn't due for another week, so she could come back to that tomorrow. 

Perhaps, Sarah thought, she should alter her portfolio of what articles she mainly wrote - she had worked hard to get back up to the top and rumour had it that she was considered one of the three best journalists in the UK. Her reputation had taken a hit after the Planet 3 scandal and then she had disappeared for years after that, only to then come back writing about the Dauntless. 

It hadn't been the truth, of course, but a carefully tailored lie could be just as valuable. Sarah abhorred lying in most cases, but she had seen enough of life to know that sometimes, there wasn't another option. Like the Dauntless disaster. At least it had given her the necessary popularity and credibility to actually get back into journalism and oh, she hadn't realised how much she had missed writing. She had hated the fame the tragedy got her at the time, had only asked to be left alone and eventually, people realised that she wouldn't talk and had complied. The irony wasn't lost on her; a journalist annoyed by her fellow reporters who only tried to do their job.

The most ironic part of it? Had Sarah herself been in their shoes, she wouldn't have caved so easily. But her name must have still had some weight to it because they stopped coming back all too quick. Or perhaps someone had pulled some strings - she didn't really care.

At least something good had come from all of it: if Sarah Jane Smith asked for a story or to cover a certain topic, no matter for whom, it was handed to her without much protest. If she dropped some of her contacts a note saying she had an infant to raise and wouldn't be able to do much investigating for a while, they would happily hand her enough work that she could pick her cherries. And besides, there was still the bulk of Aunt Lavinia's money that she hadn't invested in research projects or put aside for Luke. Oh. Yet another thing to put on the to do list. 

Sarah smiled and turned to look at Sky, who had the soft ball they bought yesterday pressed against her mouth. She made a face. How often was she supposed to wash that thing? Or anything that had baby drool on it?

'Sky, darling, what do you think about a walk? Try out that new pram of yours? We have to go to the bank.'

In answer, Sky waved the ball at Sarah and promptly let it drop over the edge of the basket. For a moment, she tried to grab it again, then her face scrunched up and Sarah knew instinctively that she would start crying any minute now. But she didn't get up to try placate her baby, couldn't help but watch with curiosity as Sky filled up her little lungs and let out a wail that was far too loud to come out of anyone that small.

Sarah found it fascinating. Never before had she just sat and watched a baby and it was quite intriguing. The noise, though, was not and with a soft sigh, she bent down to gingerly pick up the ball and then gently scoop Sky herself up. 

'There's your ball, see? Everything is fine.' Sky stared at the ball Sarah held in front of her, stopped wailing for a moment, then grabbed it and smushed it against her face again. Her crying had stopped.

All was well.

Off to the bank, then.

Sky, it seemed, quite enjoyed being outside. Sarah had bundled her up, perhaps a little too warm - better safe than sorry - and now pushed the pram down the street. She couldn’t help watching Sky, who had abandoned the ball and was, instead, marvelling at the sky and the bushes and everything she could see.

She had only seen it briefly, Sarah remembered, as a girl of twelve years three days ago, and she had been just as amazed by it then. The next time she was twelve, Sarah thought with a smile, green trees and blue skies and the fresh breeze of a day in March would be perfectly normal to her. 

In the beginning, Luke had been just like that too but he had Maria to help him get used to everything. Oh, she missed Maria. At the thought of her wonderful girl, Sarah couldn’t help but hold back a small laugh that fought its way up her throat. They were due to video call again sometime soon and when Maria saw Sky...oh, she would adore Sky, that Sarah was sure of. Though she was also certain that she would laugh at her; she remembered all too well how adamant she had been in the beginning to not bring anyone, least of all children, into her life. And now she had a baby, Maria would laugh at the irony of that.

Though perhaps she would also have to talk to her about, well. The fact that she still loved Maria and that Sky wouldn’t replace her. With Luke, the need for such a conversation seemed superfluous, after his rather hard sent off to university, she had made sure that he knew no one would ever replace him as her son. But Maria had been the first child she ever thought of as a sort of daughter, even if she was only ever ‘Sarah Jane’ to her. And yet Maria had told her, when they left, that though she loved her own mother, she loved Sarah just as much, and that had been that.

They never spoke about that particular confession, but it had also never seemed necessary. Now, though, with the way Chrissy had kept treating Maria when she had a new boyfriend (it wasn’t Ivan any longer, Maria had mentioned another divorce, and there had been several men since), Sarah suspected Maria would be a little more apprehensive of losing her to the baby. Which was ridiculous, of course, and rationally, Maria would know that, but rationality rarely counted much when it came to matters of the heart. 

But if she was raising Sky, Sarah thought, then she would take every care in the world that she would turn out as wonderful as Maria had. Maybe she should ask Alan about a few parenting tips - he’d probably laugh at her too, but at least he’d understand the entire ‘alien baby’ problem.

The point, though, was that by the time Sky went to school, she would be both a very normal and a very special child. She would be allowed to have a proper childhood, to learn about the world as she was growing up; she wasn’t dumped into a world she knew nothing about and had yet to navigate all of a sudden. It was a thought that made Sarah smile and some of the strangers on the street smiled back at her. What they were thinking, she didn’t know, if they thought she was out with her child or grandchild, but she was in a wonderful, bright mood and it was infectious.

Setting up a savings account for Sky like she had for Luke was done in no time but it took long enough for Sky to doze off, taking a little nap. 

‘Your daughter really is adorable, and so quiet!’ the young accountant gushed and Sarah Jane shook her head with a small smile. This would take some getting used to, but she acquiesced. 

‘She’s lovely, yes,’ she answered drily and the woman forced her eyes away from the baby to hand Sarah the documents to sign. Which she did fervently because she really, really, wanted to get away from this annoyingly adoring lady. She meant well, Sarah was well aware, but she still wasn’t quite comfortable with the idea of raising a baby, and being so overly affectionate to a child you didn’t know had always seemed strange to her. At least the accountant seemed to notice how uncomfortable Sarah was, because she deliberately kept her eyes away from the baby after that and wrapped up everything rather quickly.

And then they found themselves on the way home and Sarah faced an entirely new challenge: Shopping with a stroller. It took a little while to figure out which things to best stash where and thankfully, she didn’t need much - some more of the formula for Sky, bread and milk, some vegetables and chocolate. Because while Sarah prided herself on not having many vices, chocolate was the one she would never be able to give up.

By the time they got back home, an elderly lady with a walking frame and two women with toddlers in their arms had stopped her to peak into the pram and catch a glimpse of the still dozing baby inside and Sarah wondered once again if she really knew what she had gotten herself into. 

She had just missed Martha’s call to her landline, but she had left her a message saying that she got a call from Kate that she could leave early to see Sarah, so she called her back and they arranged for Martha to come by after tea.

Until then, it was back to tidying up the shopping from the day before, even though much of it still had to wait until she got the furniture for Sky’s room. She had decided it might be best to use the guest room that was right next to her own bedroom, not the small one down the hall by Luke’s. 

When she had moved into the house, Sarah had often wondered what had possessed her to pick a house of this size. She had been a single woman with no family and few friends, none of whom she would have considered to let them stay over. But fate was funny like that: In less than a year, one of the bedrooms was Luke’s, the second one a playroom of sorts, and the one on the top floor, across the attic, had been turned into a sort of storage room for all kinds of alien-unrelated things. And now the last guest room would be Sky’s room, so all future overnight guests would have to sleep in the guest room upstairs that wasn’t really a guest room at all.

She should probably arrange for someone to come and move the bed, wardrobe and dresser from Sky’s room upstairs so that, when the childproof furniture that was going in there arrived, the delivery men would actually be able to put it up. So it probably should happen soonish. Well. Maybe Martha knew someone who could help, she had moved recently, if Sarah remembered correctly. 

The ringing of the doorbell took her completely by surprise and it startled Sky, who immediately started crying and was still wailing when Sarah carried her downstairs to let Martha in. 

‘Sorry,’ Martha said in lieu of a proper greeting, ogling Sky with unhidden curiosity. Sarah didn’t blame her; quite the opposite, in fact. It was one of those things only someone who travelled with the Doctor could understand, that the unexpected was not always bad and that curiosity could get you further than you would expect. That Sarah was now holding a crying baby certainly fell into the category of the unexpected. 

‘It’s alright,’ she answered and shut the door again, ‘I think she’s not used to loud noises yet. I don’t think anyone rang the doorbell since she arrived.’

‘I thought you had people over yesterday?’

‘I did.’

‘Then how did they get in?’

‘Well,’ Sarah began sheepishly, ‘Kate, Clyde and Rani all have a key. They come and go all the time and when I’m in the attic...well, and Gita and Haresh came in with us when we got back from the shopping centre.’

‘Looks like you were successful.’ Martha nodded at the things that Sarah had unpacked but not yet found a home for.

‘You wouldn’t believe how much we bought - put your coat over there and come in the kitchen, I’ll make some tea.’ She glanced at the baby in her arms. ‘And a bottle for Sky, I think.’

Martha nodded and joined Sarah in the kitchen a few moments later. She kept watching Sarah, who slowly seemed to get the hang of doing things one-handedly, then offered to feed Sky while Sarah made tea for them.

‘How’s Mickey?’ Sarah wanted to know and placed a mug in front of her friend. At the mention of her boyfriend, Martha’s face lit up.

‘He’s wonderful! He’s doing some work for UNIT, and sometimes for Torchwood, but he’s taking evening classes now, so he can get an engineering degree. He’d never say it out loud, but I think he wants to have it in black and white that he’s got more skills than to work in a garage.’

‘Of course he does! Mickey is a wonderful young man - you know, maybe you two should come over sometime for dinner - or maybe when it’s a little warmer, then we could barbecue?’ Sarah didn’t want to admit that the chances of her burning down the house during a barbecue were far slimmer than if she spent an afternoon in the kitchen. Bad enough that Kate knew that, and the children, no need for that to become common companion gossip.

‘That would be lovely! Mickey would love to see you again too, and if I’m going to do this young lady’s checkups, then we’ll see each other regularly, so maybe we can arrange something like that?’

‘We could,’ Sarah acknowledged. ‘But you’re also very welcome here when you’re not looking after Sky. And you need to give me your details so I can pay you properly -’

‘Sarah Jane, I will not accept any money for looking after your baby! You’re a friend! I’m not charging friends!’

‘That really isn’t necessary -’

‘Yes, it is! We might not have seen much of each other in the last year, but that doesn’t mean you’re not one of our dearest friends anymore.’

‘Thank you, Martha.’ There was something very sincere, touched in Sarah’s voice and Martha reached her free hand over to squeeze her’s. Sarah’s eyes widened. ‘You’re engaged?’

Martha bit her lip and smiled shily. ‘Yes.’

‘Oh, that is wonderful, Martha, I am so happy for you! Congratulations - you and Mickey make a beautiful couple.’

‘Thank you, Sarah Jane.’ She hesitated. ‘We haven’t set a date yet but I was going to ask you the next time I saw you, would you, I mean.’ Martha stopped, took a deep breath and looked square at Sarah. ‘Would you be my, well, maid of honour? I can’t think of anyone else who’d understand me and my life and whom I trust and-’

‘I’d be honoured,’ Sarah interrupted her rambling gently, her eyes a little teary. She understood, in a way, why Martha would want her there. Remembered her own wedding where there had been no one who knew the Doctor aside from the children, no one who really understood all of her. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had been to any wedding, let alone one where she had been a bridesmaid - maid, no matron of honour. Her wedding might have never gotten to the final vows, but she couldn’t not consider it valid. Her heart wouldn’t let her.

‘Thank you,’ Martha said quietly. She took a sip of her tea, then looked back at Sarah. ‘I know I should ask Tish, but. Well. You know. Since the Valiant we’re...we’re not close anymore and I want someone who understands and -’

‘I know. You don’t have to feel guilty. That year...it changed all of us.’ Martha had never asked how Sarah remembered, only knew that when they pulled the earth back where it belonged, Sarah Jane had put an arm around her and pulled her into a hug and whispered her thanks to the woman who walked the earth. They had never spoken about it again, knowing that it was too painful, but it gave them an understanding not even Mickey shared.

‘Thank you. Now, let’s look at you, darling?’ 

Perhaps it wasn’t the smoothest way to change the subject but it did the job just as well. Sarah directed them into the sitting room and Martha placed Sky on the sofa. 

‘I’m going to write everything in here-’ she waved a small notebook at Sarah, ‘-and it’s going to stay here with you. So no one can find anything untoward if they come snooping in my office. But I’d like to set up a proper patient file for Sky too, one that contains all the really important information doctors might need in case of an emergency. If that’s alright with you, of course.’

‘Of course.’ Sarah nodded. ‘Anything else would be reckless - and hard to explain when she goes to school.’

‘True,’ Martha said with a chuckle and carefully began her very thorough check up on Sky. She didn’t tell Sarah Jane that she had been a little panicky all day, reading up on the tests usually done on a newborn and calling in a few favours from old colleagues to get the proper vaccines for a baby. Because while UNIT had a lot of things she was free to take, shots for a baby weren’t amongst them.

‘I have a very special patient that I do house calls for and she just had a baby,’ Martha had explained to her former colleague, ‘and she wants her child to get all her vaccinations but she doesn’t want to take her to a Doctor, so I thought…’ At least her friend hadn’t asked any more questions, which Martha solely blamed on the fact that she had become a rather accomplished liar in the last few years. Not that she liked lying, but sometimes it just couldn’t be avoided.

‘I think most of your Mr Smith’s analyses here are correct,’ she said eventually, tapping her pen on the list of results Sarah Jane had printed out. ‘Though I think Sky’s a little younger than the three months he calculated, by her development I’d say she’s only around six weeks. Have you checked with your watch?’

‘I have, right after I found her on my doorstep. It was...very confused, probably because of the DNA markers for maturity.’

‘Have you tried again since?’

‘No, I don’t think I have - let me see.’ She hadn’t even thought of that, and flicking her watch open to scan Sky again actually did get her a result this time around. ‘One week?!’ 

Eyes wide, Martha scrambled over to look and indeed, the age on the display clearly said ‘108 hours.’.

‘You know,’ Sarah mused, eyes on Sky, ‘it makes sense. Mrs Mayers had to grow the DNA for Sky’s cells that would have taken some time. I’ve seen something like that before, as a healing pod, where DNA was grown into skin patches from almost nothing, and it only took a few hours. Growing an entire child...that would take longer.’

‘Three months.’

‘Yes. But Sky wasn’t alive yet - she was like an unborn child. Oh.’

‘What?’

‘She must have been a newborn when she was brought here! Only a day, maybe a few hours old - it’s no wonder she didn’t stop crying.’ Sarah sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose and Martha reached over to squeeze her shoulder.

‘She’s literally been with you since she was born, then,’ she smiled and looking at it like that, well, Sarah couldn’t help but smile too. Martha neatly wrote all that information into the notebook, then she proceeded to Sky her first necessary shot. There was no crying, just very curiously following the syringe with her eyes and then trying to grab Martha’s bracelet. 

Martha laughed at it and cuddled her and offered to stay a little longer, already completely wrapped around Sky’s little finger.

‘Would you mind looking after Sky for a bit if I go and have a bath?’ Sarah asked carefully as she watched Martha detangle her hair from Sky’s hand. She only glanced up for a moment, shooting Sarah a smile, then her attention was back on the baby.

‘´Course not. Go have a nice long soak and I’ll take care this little darling.’

‘Thank you, Martha.’ When she didn’t get another answer, Sarah shook her head, smiling warmly, before she ventured upstairs. With a relieved sigh, she ran herself the hot bath she had been craving for days now but had yet to find a moment for in the midst of the chaos that this week had been so far. Somehow, she doubted that things would get any less stressful in the near future but Sarah found that honestly, she didn’t really care.

When she came back downstairs, she felt like a new woman and sent Martha off home to Mickey with a tight hug and a box of chocolates. Then she set about the same routine she had been on the last two days: A bottle for Sky, light supper for herself, changing Sky’s diaper, getting ready for bed. Wiggling Sky into the sleeping bag again, tucking herself in. 

Only when she was half asleep in the darkness of her bedroom did she remember that she had meant to bathe Sky today. Oh well. Too late now. She’d just have to do that in the morning. For now, she thought with a smile, she would just go and dream about something nice.


	4. Week One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, it's time for Luke to meet his little sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sweet and fluffy one with lots of Sarah and Luke which hopefully, everyone will enjoy ^^  
> Next week, I will be taking a little updating break because, well, life, but I think I'll be able to resume updating the week after that. On that note, have a nice weekend everyone!

Sarah Jane had to admit that after barely a week of Sky living with her, it was already impossible to imagine what she had ever done without her. It was very much like when Luke had first come to her and she hadn’t known how to be a mum for him but had also known that she wouldn’t ever be able to let him go.

They had spoken again, of course, and despite her protests Luke had insisted on coming home this weekend instead of the next. And could she blame him? Of course not. He was curious, wanted to meet his sister and if she was quite honest, Sarah sometimes wished her son had not yet moved out. She was happy for him, that was no question, but she missed him terribly. Even if she was a little miffed that he wanted to come and check up on her. Then again, after the Ruby White drama, she couldn’t really blame him for that. 

So far, things had gone surprisingly well, though. 

With the exception of that curse on Clyde the other day, but they had managed to take care of that. Surprisingly, the solution for poor Clyde had been Sky: unlike everyone who turned on him, she had only stopped crying when he was holding her and Sarah Jane felt that no one who was so wonderful with children could be as rotten as the curse had made her think.

It still hadn’t been pleasant, but at least they managed to take care of things. It had brought one of Sarah’s initial doubts back to the forefront of her mind, though. What to do with Sky when there were alien threats that had to be taken care of. Rani and Clyde had, of course, offered their assistance several times; they were perfectly happy to help out more, but she couldn’t allow that. They had, after all, to live their lives. And they were so very young besides!

Perhaps it was silly, Sarah knew that Rani and Clyde could look after themselves, that they had grown and learned so much since she had first met them. But in her eyes, they were still children - her children, in a way, like Luke and Maria and now Sky too. She wondered, briefly, if this was how the Doctor felt about them, about all his friends, assistants and companions; if he too felt so old sometimes, and wanted nothing but to keep them safe. 

She had thought about contacting him but really, it wouldn’t have changed anything. Not that he ever answered his phone anyway, so what would be the point? He’d show up again at some day, maybe as the incredibly young old man or with yet another new face.

How many had that been, now? Sarah had tried to figure out which regeneration he was in, but she hadn’t really been able to come up with anything. He had told her it had been a dozen faces since he had last seen her, but technically, that would have made the Doctor she had run into in Deffry Vale number fourteen. As far as she was aware, that wasn’t even possible. Unless he counted the time he dumped her in Aberdeen - which she was inclined to think he had been going from - he would have gone through almost all his faces in no time and somehow, Sarah found the prospect of that more than unsettling. Terrifying, really. Though that would have made him Doctor number ten, and the last one she saw would have been eleven. 

She shouldn’t worry so much, she then scolded herself. There really was no point to it at all. And yet worrying was something that a lot of people kept telling her was completely natural for mothers, something they often didn’t do until they held their children. So perhaps she should cut herself some slack for now.

A car pulling up the drive made Sarah’s head snap up and a smile spread across her face. She looked at Sky, who was still asleep in her cradle, then rushed downstairs to greet her son.

‘Luke!’

‘Mum!’ He beamed at her and then he was in her arms, hugging her tight.

‘You’ve grown again,’ Sarah said and reached up to run her fingers through his hair. He grinned down on her.

‘Maybe. Or maybe you got shorter?’

‘Oi, cheek!’ They both laughed and she pulled him close again before stepping aside so he could come in. ‘Sky’s still asleep,’ she explained as she helped Luke carry his things inside, ‘so just keep the noise down a little - it takes forever to calm her down every time someone rings the doorbell.’

‘Sure, mum. I think I can manage that.’

‘Thank you. Tea?’

‘Are you really asking?’

‘Alright, alright.’ Still laughing softly, Sarah threw her hands up in mock surrender. ‘Sit down, I’ll make us a cup.’

While his mum was making their tea, Luke diligently unpacked his bag - mostly dirty laundry - and carried the rest of his things upstairs into his room. Curiosity killed the cat, he thought, but he just couldn’t help himself. Sarah had told him that the room next to her own would be Sky’s but that she hadn’t yet found the time to actually do much with it and the furniture she had ordered wouldn’t arrive for another two weeks or so. He still peeked inside and had to hold back a grin. It really was a mess, the cupboards empty and lots and lots of unpacked bags and boxes everywhere on the floor. 

But what he was much more interested in than an empty room was, of course, the baby. His little sister. If he was quite honest, Luke still wasn’t quite sure what to think about that. It wasn’t that he didn’t like babies - he did, probably more than his mum - but he knew about as much about them as she did. Which was to say: not very much. In terms of practical, useful knowledge, at least. Still, he’d had an entire week to come to terms with the fact that he now had a little sister who was actually a baby, and he was more than curious to finally meet her. 

So Luke carefully pushed the door to his mother’s bedroom open and crept inside. It looked pretty much the same as it always did, except for the crib standing next to her bed. It was quite pretty, like the ones he had seen on the telly before, in the old black-and-white films they sometimes watched. 

Inside the cradle was a small, pink baby. She was cute, Luke thought, and had to bite back a chuckle when he remembered Clyde’s imitation of his mum’s ‘I thought babies looked a bit rubbery’. But Sky didn’t, he decided. She was really quite adorable, and she looked a little like a china doll, all soft and rosy and pure.

‘I thought you’d be in here.’ His head snapped up and he stared at his mother, who had snuck in and was now standing right next to him. Luke hadn’t even heard her come up the stairs but he suspected that he’d been gone a bit longer than it usually took to deposit his bags. 

‘Tea’s done,’ Sarah said softly and put an arm around her son. Her head fell against his shoulder and for a long moment, they just watched Sky sleep, her little chest rising and falling with every breath she took.

How strange to think that these were her children. Her children. She tasted them carefully, the words, and she had to admit that she liked their sound. It was one thing to say ‘this is my son’ or ‘this is my daughter’ - ‘these are my children’ had a lovely ring to it. 

‘She’s tiny,’ Luke whispered eventually and Sarah smiled.

‘She really is, isn’t she? So small and innocent.’

‘You just want to protect her,’ Luke finished for his mum and she just nodded.

‘You weren’t so small, but you were just as innocent. Sometimes, I think…’ She stopped, shook her head softly. ‘Sometimes, I wish I had the chance to raise you like that. Not because I don’t love you or how I got you but you’re already grown up.’

‘I’m sorry, mum.’ There was a strange sincerity in Luke’s voice and Sarah elbowed him lightly into the side. He grinned, but there was a certain melancholia in it that Sarah understood all too well. ‘If I’d ever been a child, I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else as my mum.’

‘Oh Luke.’ Sarah smiled at him and pulled him tighter into her half-hug. He didn’t resist - when it was just the two of them, he rarely did. 

For all her fears in the beginning, all her worries about messing everything up and ruining Luke’s life by adopting him, Sarah Jane had very quickly become a very good mother. It had, perhaps, had a lot to do with how her son had come to be her son and the secrets they shared but kept from the world, but they had soon turned into a very tight-knit pair. They quickly caught on to the expectations of general society, how people thought they should behave - Maria and Clyde had been of great assistance in that regard.

But when they were alone, Luke had asked his mum to sit by his bed and tell him stories to fall asleep to and after a while, he hadn’t hesitated to come padding into her bedroom in the middle of the night because of a nightmare. His or her own, it had never mattered to Sarah; after the first time when she had, admittedly and understandably, been rather shocked, she hadn’t hesitated to let her son slip under her covers and they’d both fall asleep again with the comfort of someone they trusted next to them.

It had always been one of the few things Sarah thought of as traits that reflected Luke’s true age, but even as he got older, it hadn’t changed and Sarah was inanely grateful that her son was still that same innocent boy she had taken in that day.

Despite trying to be rational all week, telling herself that Luke would adore Sky, it took an enormous weight - one she hadn't even known she carried - off her shoulders to see him so genuinely happy about her that he couldn’t stop smiling down the baby. 

‘I’ve got a little sister,’ he said suddenly and looked at Sarah again, his eyes wide. ‘I’ve got a little sister, mum.’

'Yes, you do.' She smiled, strangely blissful at his delight.

'I never thought I'd ever have children, you know?' Sarah said suddenly, her face thoughtful, gently tugging on her son's arm to have him sit on the bed next to her. 'When I was that young, raging feminist, being a mother just seemed so unappealing. And after I went out to see the universe, I thought, "how could I ever let a child go out there, knowing the dangers?" And then I didn't have anyone to have a child with. It's ironic, isn't it? That for all I was preaching, the idea of having children on my own never occured to me.'

'And now?' Luke asked softly and looked up at his mother from where his head was resting in her lap. She smiled; stroked his hair. 

'Now I wouldn't miss it for the universe. Everything that happens, Luke, it all happens for a reason. I wasn't meant to have children before because I was meant to have you, and now Sky too.' There was a hint of disbelief in her voice, leftover from the time not so long ago when she had been terrified at the prospect of raising a baby, or any child younger than a teenager. No one else would have even noticed, but this was Luke and he knew his mother better than anyone. He squeezed her hand. 

'I'm lucky, mum, that I got you as my mum. And Sky is lucky too, because she's got the most amazing mum in the universe but she's also got the best big brother.'

'She does, doesn't she?' Sarah contemplated with a smile, purposefully ignoring her son's teasing. For a moment, it seemed like he was about to protest, then he shrugged and made himself comfortable. 

When she realised that Luke wasn't planning on going back downstairs anytime soon, she gently pushed him up. He made a soft noise of protest, but then smiled when she shuffled back on the bed to lean against the soft pillows.

It was nice, Sarah thought, to just sit on her bed with her son cuddled close and her daughter fast asleep next to them. They rarely indulged like this, just doing nothing in the middle of the day, but lately, there had been so many things going on that this quiet moment of family time was exactly what they needed.

That's what they were, wasn't it? A family. A mother and her children. It wasn't that Sarah hadn't considered just Luke and herself a family too, but she had hardly ever called them that. Why, she couldn't even say herself.

They were all quiet, Sky still sleeping soundly and a glance at her son made Sarah smile. He looked peaceful asleep, and incredibly young. More like the boy she had adopted five years ago, not the young man he was becoming. It all felt so serene and beautiful that Sarah let her thoughts go adrift again, her fingers still running through her son's hair in that repetitive, calming and incredibly soothing way that had made him slip off into the land of dreams.

Sarah vowed to savour every single moment of this and to never forget how she felt right then: Filled to the brim with wonderfully pleasant, calm happiness.

Somehow, that small reprieve from the world set the tone for the rest of the weekend. Everything seemed to happen beneath a haze of pleasantness that no one dared to disturb and they were grateful for it.

Luke loved his friends, he truly did. But he would happily admit that he was a little jealous of them for having already spent so much time with his little baby sister. He had some catching up to do and Sarah had to admit that her son was much more of a natural with babies than she herself was.

Sky had immediately taken a liking to him and was all too happy for his unwavering attention. It had made Sarah's heart burst, watching her children next to each other on the grass outside, Luke patiently explaining star systems to his little sister. He liked reading to her too - some of his university books he had brought home for studying, some of the classics from the shelf - or he just talked. If she hadn't been too young to actually comprehend any of what he was saying, Sarah would have sworn that Sky was listening quite raptly to every single word he was saying, absorbing them like a sponge. 

Briefly, she wondered if she should worry about it, that maybe Sky would somehow remember all those things, but then she discarded the idea. Children paid attention to whoever was paying them attention and Luke’s entire focus was on his little sister. It was, she found, absolutely adorable.

She had hoped that her son would love his new sister like this, but even though she trusted him above anyone else, there had been that nagging little voice in the back of her head, telling her that there would be sibling rivalry and jealousy - but Luke wasn’t like that, had never been like that and she asked herself what could ever make her think about him in such a way.

Nothing, really. It had been nothing but doubts - not her son, but doubting herself, Sarah realised. She wasn’t surprised. Perhaps she had grown to accept the presence of a baby in her life over the last week, had come to accept her new role of a mother to an infant, but that didn’t necessarily mean all her reservations had miraculously disappeared. They were still there, ready to jump at her again at any given moment, and she couldn’t help but hope dearly that for just this weekend, they would stay away.

‘All the girls at Uni will want to come visit,’ Luke suddenly said during dinner, looking at his mother. She frowned.

‘What do you mean?’ She asked tentatively and Luke grinned at her before gesturing wildly with his fork, pointing it at Sky in her bassinet. ‘Luke! Stop that! You’ll poke someone’s eye out,’ Sarah scolded, then her frown deepened. ‘Why would your friends be interested in Sky?’

‘Because she’s a baby?’ Like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Perhaps it was.

‘And?’

‘Aaaand -’ he exaggerated the “and”, ‘- girls love babies. I told Sanjay that you adopted a baby and Melissa from my astro physics class overheard and she totally freaked out. Spread the word to all her friends that I had a baby sister.’

‘Oh dear.’ Sarah had to bite back a laugh. Not quite what she had expected. But Luke’s face was thoughtful, contemplative.

‘Maybe you could come up and visit sometime?’ He asked carefully, genuine hope shining in his eyes. Yet another thing Sarah hadn’t seen coming, though found rather pleasant. 

‘I thought Uni was your life, where I’m not going to be involved?’ She prodded carefully.

Luke shrugged. ‘Sure, but you’re still my mum and I thought it would be nice if you came up sometime. If there’s no alien invasion - but some of the other parents do, and I just...I’d like you to meet my friends, and I could show you and Sky around campus. You could come up just for the day and go back in the evening, you wouldn’t even have to stay over -’

‘Luke,’ Sarah interrupted gently, ‘you don’t need to convince me. I never brought it up, coming up to see you, because I thought you didn’t want me to come. When I went away to University, it was the first time I was totally free - no Aunt Lavinia, as much as I loved her, and no boarding school teachers telling me what to do. I wouldn’t have wanted to bring Aunt Lavinia there, it was my own little world. But honey, if you want me to come up to see you, all you have to do is ask.’

‘So you’ll come?’

‘Of course. Maybe when you get back, we can have a look at your schedule and see when it suits you?’

‘That’d be great, mum.’ He hesitated. ‘Jake said when his parents came to visit, they stayed in a nice B&B not far from our college, maybe…’ 

‘Maybe you can ask Jake for the name or the phone number and then I’ll call.’

‘Thanks, mum.’

‘Oh Luke, for you? Always.’ She squeezed his hand and he gave her a bright smile, one that lit up his entire face for a moment. Then it suddenly faltered again and he gave her a sheepish look. 

‘Mum?’

‘Yes?’

‘Could I maybe bring Sanjay the next time I come home?’

‘Of course.’ Sarah didn’t even have to think about her answer to that. Aliens or not, her children’s friends would always be welcome. He looked a little taken aback, but then he smiled that brilliant smile again and Sarah smiled back; resisting the urge to ruffle his hair or drop a kiss on his forehead.

‘Maybe we can come down in two weeks? You said Sky’s furniture would come then and maybe we could help?’

‘That is sweet of you, Luke, but I am not sure if that weekend would be the best to introduce Sanjay to us.’ Sarah worried her lip, eyes fixed on her son. ‘Martha came over again the other day to check up on Sky and she already offered to come and help. If it was just Martha and Mickey, I wouldn’t worry, but they said they’d bring Jack.’

‘Oh.’ Luke’s eyes widened at the prospect of his roommate and Jack Harkness meeting in Bannerman Road - a recipe for disaster. He nodded. ‘Then I’ll come down alone - I want to help, mum. Sky’s my sister.’

And there really wasn’t anything she could counter that with.

Sunday took a rather unexpected turn insofar that they had to deal with aliens again. Bengine ones that were held captive by the company that was launching the ‘Serf board’ and really, they should have expected it. They had turned it into a spontaneous family outing and that should have been the first clue that things would go south because they all had a penchant for attracting trouble. In the end, once again, Rani and Clyde were the ones to save the day and by the time they got home, Sarah Jane seriously considered retiring from the alien business. 

Not that it was even possible, but honestly, it was exhausting to chase the bad guys with a baby on your hip and a diaper bag over the shoulder. She really needed to figure something out for that. Because there was no way aliens would stop coming.

‘Sparky’s first real adventure,’ Clyde grinned once they were all settled in the attic with tea and cake Rani had brought over. Gita had apples leftover. 

‘Her third,’ Rani disagreed immediately. ‘First the Fleshkind, then your curse, and today. Makes three.’

‘But the first doesn’t count, that was all about her.’

‘And the last one was all about you, so it doesn’t count either?’ Luke chimed in and Clyde rolled his eyes.

‘Well, I was the only one who actually did anything.’

‘But Sky was the one who made us remember you-’

‘I think what matters,’ Sarah spoke up, ‘is that it wasn’t the last one.’

And no one could argue with that. 

She left the children alone for a while, carrying Sky downstairs to change her nappy and maybe put her down for a late nap after all the excitement today. She had kept fretting upstairs, even in Luke’s arms, and those three deserved a moment of peace without having to accommodate the baby. Not that Sky was a burden, but they were teenagers. They had things to talk about and Sarah was fairly certain she didn’t want to know all the details, especially not when it came to her own son. Rani, Maria and Clyde might see her as a friend and a sort of mother figure - which she was - but she was also their mentor and most certainly not a teeager anymore. Taking Sky downstairs was as good an excuse as any to give them some time among themselves.

She was due for a bath and after a day like this one, bedtime should probably be a little earlier than usual. Sarah was, quite honestly, not even sure if that was a good idea for a baby who’d probably wake up crying in the middle of the night, but Sky already seemed to get fussy and she attributed that to being sleepy. 

It was only the second time Sarah was giving her daughter a bath and she was still as afraid of letting a slippery baby drop into the baby tub and harm her. Last time had been fine, but who knew what would happen this time around.

Nothing, as it turned out. 

Sky was, apparently, at the stage of tiredness where she was in a perpetually half-asleep state, making Sarah question the wisdom of giving her a bath now even if she had smelled oddly like the aliens in the control room had. Oh well. She’d have to learn somehow, she decided. Parenting books couldn’t teach you everything, after all.

Once Sky was tucked in, fast asleep, Sarah decided to make herself comfortable on the Sofa. Her son and his friends were still upstairs, she had checked on them earlier, so a cup of tea seemed perfect to end the day.

The gentle ringing of her house phone stopped her just as she was about to sit down and with a sigh, she wandered back into the hall to get it.

‘Smith?’

‘I hear you met a dead man today, Aunt Sarah?’ came the answer without way of greeting, and Sarah Jane felt the corner of her mouth twitch when she heard Kate’s voice.

‘I did,’ she answered.

‘You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you?’

‘Well, it’s not like I’m going out looking for it!’ Sarah protested, even though that wasn’t completely true. Sometimes, Mr Smith told her about aliens that had arrived and she went looking for them before UNIT got there - though with Kate in charge now, that might actually not be quite so necessary anymore now. Case in point, though. 

‘Oh, right, it just grows legs and comes running after you,’ Kate teased now and Sarah   
laughed.

‘I learned that from the best.’ She paused. ‘You haven’t met him yet, have you?’

‘No.’ Kate’s answer was soft, a little wistful, perhaps, and it made Sarah smile.

‘Trust me on this, you’ll meet him Katie - sooner rather than later. He’ll show up out of the blue one day and you’ll just pray that you only have to deal with me regularly because trouble really follows him on the heel.’

‘So I’ve heard - did everything go well today? When I heard that there were aliens involved, I wanted to send someone but then I remembered you said that you’d be at the launch today, so I assumed you’d have everything under control.’

‘We did - barely. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with Sky when we get in situations like this - which reminds me. I used one of the new cards you gave me.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes. We had a little - a lot, really - help from a young woman working for Serf as a cleaner. Adriana Petrescu. The Skullions brought her to the basement to see if she could help them and she never once hesitated. She didn’t care that they weren’t human or even from earth, all she cared about was that they were treated horribly, inhumane and that she could do something to fix that.’

‘She sounds like she has a good heart,’ Kate offered and Sarah nodded, even though Kate couldn’t see her.

‘She does. That’s what you gave me those new cards for, wasn’t it? Because I’m more likely to run into people fit to join UNIT.’

‘It is - I’m still working on overhauling everything, it takes time -’

‘I know, Kate. You don’t need to defend yourself. You’re working very hard to get science to lead again, to make UNIT protect instead of attack. That’s why I send Adriana to you, because you need good people like her to make that happen.’

‘Thank you, Sarah.’

‘You’re doing a great job, you know that, right, Kate? You’re father would be so very proud of you.’ She hesitated, smiled a little. ‘I’m proud too.’

‘Don’t make me cry now.’ Kate was only half joking, it was audible in her voice - perhaps it was her father’s death, still quite recent - or Sarah’s praise, or maybe something else entirely, but she did sound a little teary.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,’ Sarah apologised and skillfully brought the conversation back to the Skullions she had met earlier that day and recounted the entire adventure in detail.

Talking to Kate was easy, Fiz came to say hello even, and it was a quite relaxing to spend her evening with a cup of peppermint tea and a friend on the phone. They only hung up when the trio finally came downstairs, Rani and Clyde ready to go home for the night, and they wanted to say goodbye. 

Luke kept yawning once they were gone, so Sarah gently pulled the mum card.

‘You might be going to University now, young man, but you’re still my son and as your mother, I am telling you to go upstairs and get some sleep now. You’ll have an early morning tomorrow if you want to be back in Oxford in time for your classes.’

‘I know, mum. I’m already on my way - goodnight.’ He smiled and kissed her cheek and Sarah watched him saunter up the stairs with a smile on her face.

She tidied their mugs, locked everything up for the night and turned off the lights before following him upstairs. When she checked on him a few minutes later, her son was fast asleep already and so was her daughter in the crib next to her bed. 

Sarah smiled at them. They both looked so peaceful right now - she should get some sleep too while it lasted.

She fell asleep with the smile still on her face.


	5. Week Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some much needed mother-daughter time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, it's been one week longer than intended, sorry about that - life was a little busy. But I think it should be back to weekly updates now, so I hope you enjoy this one.   
> A word of warning, there are some moments were you might need some tissues in this one!

Sky didn't like sleeping in her own room.

All Sarah really felt like doing right now was cry. She was tired - exhausted, really - drained and stressed and Sky just wouldn't stop crying. 

The furniture for Sky's room had finally arrived the week before and over the weekend, some of her friends had come over to help her set everything up. Martha and Mickey she had planned on, Jack she had also expected, which meant that Ianto would be far behind. Nothing could have stopped Luke, Rani and Clyde and even Kate had made an appearance, though that had been cut short when she received a call from Osgood, who apparently was her new assistant, and had to go back to the Tower for some emergency or another.

Really, Sarah had expected something to go wrong - it just wasn't that Sky didn't want to sleep in her new room.

It was pretty. 

With the help of Mr Smith, they had printed a star chart with every planet they had ever visited and then copied the entire thing onto the ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars. 

Rani and Clyde had already helped her a few days before, when Sarah had said she wanted to paint at least one wall of the bedroom, so they had pushed all the furniture to one side, or out into the hall, and had started painting. The wall across the window and the one with the door were now dark blue - darker than the TARDIS and more like the sky just after the sun set and it wasn't quite dark yet. The other two walls, the one with the window and the one across the door, were still white because Sarah didn't want the room to be too gloomy.

With six pairs of helping hands, it had taken no time at all to get everything into the guest room upstairs and set up the baby furniture. Everyone, Sarah was assured over and over again, was more than happy to help.

They had all come bearing gifts, something she had not expected at all. Martha and Mickey had bought a bouncy seat, something Sarah had seen during that first shopping trip with Kate but deemed unnecessary then, though Sky seemed to love it. Jack and Ianto had brought a bunch of toys Sky was still far too young for as well as a thick envelope that, as Sarah discovered, held an entire stack of babysitting vouchers 'to be used anytime in the future.' Which didn't sound very reassuring, but the gesture was sweet.

The most ridiculous part of the entire afternoon had been during the barbecue, when Mickey and Jack proclaimed that Sarah needed a carrier for Sky - the kind that would tie the baby to her chest, so her arms wouldn't go so numb. The following discussion between them and Martha had left both men beet red, Martha scoldingly annoyed by their antics and Ianto and Sarah Jane highly amused and entertained. 

To be fair, the idea did have merit, Sarah had thought about getting one of the carriers the first day at the store with Kate. The sales assistant had said exactly the same thing as Martha, though: Sky wasn’t exactly a newborn, and one look at rather petit Sarah Jane - who was not exactly a twenty-something mum either - had been enough for the her to proclaim carriers out of question because they would do more damage to her back and shoulders than anything. Martha had explained the same thing - in much more detail - to her friends, much to their mortification, and while they all had had a good laugh about it afterwards, Sarah’s problem as to what to do with Sky all day was still unsolved. 

The weekend had been fun, enjoyable in every way, even if they had all been exhausted afterwards. Sarah had spent most of Monday trying to finally put all of Sky’s things into the new cupboards, drawers and the wardrobe and had, in the evening, finally rolled Sky’s crib over.

She had seemed fine at first, curious about the stars and the room, content in her mother’s arms as she sat down in the new rocking chair to feed her. But when it had been time to go to sleep, Sky had started to fuss. 

Sarah had tried everything she could think of. 

She had tried singing - which she really wasn’t good at, she had tried reading a story - which hadn’t helped at all, she had tried holding Sky until she was asleep only to have her wake up again the moment she tried to put her down. She had tried rubbing her belly in case she was colicy. Nothing seemed to help.

It hadn’t even occurred to her that it could be the room until she had given up, craving her comfortable bed over the rocking chair, and took Sky back into her bedroom. The moment she put her down in the bassinet on her bed, she stopped crying. The moment she tried to take the bassinet back into the other room, she started anew. 

She had caved the first night, had taken the bassinet back into her bedroom and let Sky sleep there. In the morning, she had called Kate, who had become her go-to baby-expert, and who had told her to not worry about it, to spend some time in the room with Sky today - have her nap there, too - and then try again in the evening.

So Sarah had done just that, and had been relieved when Sky had taken her mid-morning nap in her own room without a fuss, and then the afternoon one too. She hadn’t quite figured out a proper routine just yet, but she was trying to get Sky onto a somewhat feasible schedule that she could work around. Who would have thought, Sarah Jane Smith, single stay-at-home mum. Over the last few weeks, she had been reading every baby book she could get her hands on to catch up on her knowledge about babies, and had, eventually, learned that she should get her daughter onto a schedule with somewhat fixed bed and nap times to help both of them. So far, it hadn’t been an entirely successful endeavour, but they were getting there.

The last few days, though, their tentative routine had been completely scrambled, because with Sky unwilling to go to sleep at night, she slept longer in the morning, all the way through what Sarah had established as her ‘mid-morning-nap’. 

Because as happy as she was to sleep in her room throughout the day, she didn’t want to at night. Sarah really had tried everything she could think of, she had even tried leaving the lights on, but the moment she got up from the rocking chair to leave the room, Sky would start crying again and it broke Sarah’s heart every single time. She just couldn’t let her daughter cry like that - it wasn’t the ‘I want attention’ kind of crying, it was the kind that sounded utterly helpless and terribly scared and Sarah didn’t know what to do about it. 

‘Just be patient, she will settle on her own in a few days,’ had been the advice she’d gotten from the people around her. But Sarah wasn’t so sure about it.

Granted, her knowledge of babies was still sketchy at best, but she knew people. Over the years, she had learned to trust her instincts and right now, her instincts were telling her that there was something else, something she didn’t know about, and that worried her.

Worry and a lack of sleep didn’t go well together.

Sighing softly, she set her glasses down and rubbed her eyes. There was no point in trying to get any work done, she couldn’t focus on anything. Especially not now that Sky had started crying again, in that heartbreaking way that seemed to say ‘please hold me, Mama, I’m scared, don’t leave’.

‘Come on, darling, I think it’s time you and I go downstairs and have a nap, what do you think, Sky?’ She gently picked up her daughter, who’s whimpers started to quieten almost immediately, although they didn’t stop completely. Sarah smiled down on her and then carefully made her way into her bedroom. 

Realising that she had left the bassinet in the attic, Sarah hesitated for a moment, then she decided that she didn’t have the energy for the stairs again right now. She needed sleep before she could attempt to do anything else.

As she slipped on her pyjama bottoms - if she was going to take a nap in the middle of the day, she might as well be comfortable - she shook her head at herself. What was she doing? It was now more so than ever that she felt old. Just a few years ago, running on nothing but coffee and maybe three hours of sleep a night had been normal and now, it felt like she was running herself ragged.

She loved Sky, that was no question. But once again, Sarah wondered if raising Sky was the best for the baby - would she not be better off with someone younger, someone who would love her just as much but was also able to keep up with her? Martha and Mickey, if she asked them, would surely take Sky in. And yet, the mere thought of giving Sky away, even if it might have been for her benefit, made Sarah sick. 

Sky was her daughter, now, how could she even consider, just for a moment, to give her away? Even if it would be the best? She couldn’t do it, wouldn’t. She loved Sky too much.

Her cheeks were wet, but Sarah hadn’t even realised she had started crying. Perhaps she should have, she had been trying to keep the tears at bay all day. But now, in her bed, curtains drawn and her baby next to her, fast asleep - she couldn’t hold herself together any longer. 

There was a pillow next to Sky to keep her from falling off the bed at the off chance that she did suddenly start to roll over, and Sarah had one hand resting on her, gently caressing tummy. The baby was silent now, her eyelids fluttering as she was drifting off to sleep, but Sarah’s tears wouldn’t stop. They were of the silent kind, the ones you cried because you just couldn’t hold them in any longer.

‘I’m not cut out for this,’ she whispered into the empty room and curled up next to her baby, bleary eyes never leaving her. ‘But I can’t let you go, darling. Help me a little, please? Because...because sweetheart, Mama loves you so very, very much. But I’m just human too and I can’t - we can’t keep going like this. It isn’t good for either of us and the last thing I want, poppet, is for you to get hurt. I just love you too much for that.’ She paused, took a deep, shaky breath and tried to wipe the tears from her cheeks. It didn’t help, they just kept falling, soaking both the pillow and Sarah’s hair.

Oh, how she wished that there was someone there to hug her and tell her that everything was fine, that she was working herself into a frenzy because she was exhausted, not because she was a bad mother. Maybe Peter, the Doctor, Harry - her mum, who had been so wonderful with her as a baby before she died - anyone, really. But there was no one because all the people who would have known how to take care of her were either dead or off-planet. 

It was a both saddening and sobering thought and Sarah wished so desperately that she wasn’t so alone right now. There were Luke and their friends, of course, but that was different. She was a parent, friend and mentor to them; there was so much that they didn’t know about her. Things like the crushing loneliness that sometimes threatened to eat her up, in moments like this when everything just became too much. Her best friend was gallivanting around the universe and the close second, her big brother, Harry, well. No one had heard from him in years.

The need to just have someone, anyone, close had Sarah reach over and gently pull Sky towards her, then rolling onto her back, the baby now asleep on her chest. One of her tiny hands came to rest on Sarah’s collarbone as she snuggled closer to her mother, her knees pulled up.

A watery smile found its way onto her lips and she leaned up to press a small kiss against the crown of Sky’s head. Very gingerly, she placed one of her own hands on the back of her head, the other on her bum to hold her close - but not tight. She was still afraid to accidentally squish her. After a moment, she frowned and reached down to pull the duvet up over her own legs, just far enough that Sky’s bottom was covered and finally, finally a sense of peace seemed to wash over her and just like her daughter, Sarah drifted off to sleep. 

The sound of the doorbell woke both of them up. Immediately, Sky started crying, still always startled by the noise, even after a month. Sarah Jane blinked, her eyes bleary from sleep and dried tears, and it took her a moment to gather herself and recognise the sound as she shrill ringing of her doorbell. 

‘Just a moment!’ She called downstairs, not even sure if whoever was at the door could hear her from up here, but at least the incessant noise ceased for the time being.

Bouncing Sky in her arms to calm her, Sarah made her way downstairs, silently cursing herself for her attire - pyjamas in the afternoon, really? Well. She never had cared much what people thought about her and she had a baby in her arms - a still very much crying baby. Whoever was at the door would have to forgive her state of undress.

‘I’m sorry, I was - oh.’ 

‘Ms Smith? I have a delivery for you.’

‘I see. Ahm - who are you again?’ Even Sky had stopped crying, clearly sensing her mother’s tension as she stared at the big, blue, humanoid robot in front of them. He reminded her a little of the Victorian postman she had seen once or twice during her time travelling days, only that he was, well, a robot. 

‘We are the Keblam. We are the greatest delivery service in the galaxy,’ the robot proclaimed and Sarah found herself nodding, eyes wide.

‘Right. Ah, who sent me something?’ She asked carefully and the Robot glanced down at the address slip. Some things, it seemed, were the same no matter where you were in time and space.

‘Delivery for Sarah Jane Smith from Vislor Turlough,’ he read and finally, Sarah could feel herself relax.

‘In that case, could you just put it there, please?’ She nodded at the floor next to the door, just next to where she was standing. ‘I don’t seem to have a hand right now.’

‘Of course, Ms Smith.’

‘Do I need to sign a receipt?’

‘All delivery notifications are taken care of by my systems,’ the robot stated and stepped back outside. He stiffly turned around to salut Sarah. ‘Good day, Ms Smith.’ And then, like lighting, he was gone. Perplexed, Sarah looked at the empty spot he had occupied moments ago, then she shook her head and made her way back inside.

It took two trips to get both the baby and the parcel up into the attic, but finally, Sarah had it placed in front of Mr Smith. Allegedly from a friend or not, she didn’t like surprises. Especially not the alien kind.

‘Mr Smith, scan this parcel, please. I’d like to know if there is anything alien about it.’ There probably was, considering it came from an alien friend (whom she met through the Doctor, of course) but Mr Smith would hopefully still be able to tell whether it was a benign or a malignant alien energy. She had never heard of the Keblam before, so who knew if the parcel really was from Turlough.

‘I’m detecting a very subtle alien energy. It traces to Trion, a planet in -’

‘I know where Trion is, thank you, Mr Smith. Is it harmful?’

‘I don’t think so, Sarah Jane. It appears to be a neutral energy, very faint and inactive. Perhaps you should open your gift and have a look for yourself.’

‘Yes, I think I will do that, Mr Smith. Thank you.’ Sarah Jane gave her computer a smile and grabbed her sonic form one of the shelves. It flashed red and cut through the tape that held the parcel closed with no effort.

Carefully, Sarah pulled the two flaps back - and started coughing. Pink, almost glittering smoke puffed out of the parcel and surrounded Sarah. For a moment, she thought it was an attack, something harmful - but the smoke smelled like cotton candy and that did not exactly seem like a threat. Especially not since she knew the person who allegedly had sent it.

Still coughing, Sarah opened the window and once the smoke had cleared, she crept close to the parcel again, all the while watching Sky in her bassinet from the corner of her eye. Now that she could actually see, she realised that whatever was inside was heavily wrapped in bubble wrap. It seemed to be something made of fabric, but Sarah’s attention was first drawn by the big, creamy white envelope on top. Curiously, she picked it up and instantly recognised Turlough’s handwriting.

‘It’s a girl!’ the first line said. ‘Congratulations, Sarah!’ So that was what the smoke had been about. That Turlough had sent her a present for Sky - how he had heard about her arrival she did not know and she wasn’t sure she wanted to - was really quite sweet of him and Sarah felt a bright smile creep onto her face as she read on.

‘I should probably say sorry for the glitter but I had to. I’m imagining your look as you open my present and it blows up in your face - literally - and it’s just too good. Well. When I heard you took in another stray - a very little one - I couldn’t help myself. You know me. And you, you’re becoming more and more like the Doctor. 

I hope you can make use of my gift. I was going to come by and visit in person - it’s been far too long since I’ve seen you - but I still don’t like earth and they’re keeping me very busy here on Trion. So I hope you’re better off than me - but from what I’ve heard, you’re having fun. 

When I heard about your new kid, I thought you would probably have use for this. It’s a carrier and yes, I know they have them on earth too. This one’s infused with some Trion tech that takes away up to 85% of the weight in it - so basically, you don’t carry a heavy baby around but a light one. At least that’s what my secretary said. She used one of these though, when she had her baby a while ago, and she’s swearing on it. So I got you one, hope you can actually use it. It’s probably a lot better than anything you can find on earth. I do so not miss that Planet…

Anyway, I hope you’re doing well and my present arrived in one piece. Hope to see you soon!

V. Turlough’

There was no denying that the letter had brightened Sarah’s day considerably, but it had also made her very curious to see what exactly Turlough had send her - them, really.

The baby carrier to strap to herself looked remarkably like the ones she had seen in the baby store a few weeks ago, but that hardly came as a surprise. After all, the people from Earth and Trion were very much alike in their physical appearance and their reproductive system was almost the same. Though while it might pass as an earth artefact by it’s looks, turning the carrier over in her hands made Sarah realise that really, it was an alien product. The fabric wasn’t quite like anything you could find on earth, lighter but sturdier at the same time, and very soft and smooth. Perfect for an infant. 

If Turlough was telling the truth, which Sarah was very much inclined to do, then this was the solution to half her problems. A carrier that reduced Sky’s weight and had almost none of its own was exactly what she needed to keep her her back from hurting and still not have to leave Sky behind when she went out investigating, lots of running involved. Not that she was planning on doing that too often, but she knew her profession well. She wouldn’t always have a choice and she’d rather have her baby with her than leave her behind where she could potentially be picked up by aliens to be used as a hostage.

Rather curious to try the contraption of strings and slings out, Sarah slowly began to try putting it on. ‘Try’ being the operative; it did take several attempts until she finally figured out what went where because apparently, looking human didn’t mean it was. And of course, there had been no instructions. But, eventually, she did manage and carefully strapped Sky into it. 

It was as if Sky had suddenly become weightless. While there was still a soft, almost comforting weight against her upper body, where Sky was now strapped to her chest, it was neither uncomfortable nor heavy. The feeling, Sarah decided, was quite wonderful. Sky seemed to like it too, because she immediately snuggled as close to her mother as physically possible and Sarah found herself smiling down at her.

This, she decided, was perhaps the best baby-gift anyone had given her so far. Which wasn’t to say that the other things were not nice and useful too, but Sarah was delighted to have both hands free for the first time in weeks, to putter about without having to juggle a baby in one arm and still have Sky close.

Funny. A few weeks ago, babies were of absolutely no interest to her and now she wouldn’t want to let go of hers. Strange how life sometimes worked out, how you sometimes found people unexpectedly and they put your life upside down but you wouldn’t want to miss any of it.

Sarah Jane had never prided herself in being a very social person. It wasn’t how Aunt Lavinia had raised her and the only time she really had a group of friends who knew her inside out had been back at UNIT, in the olden days when the Brig had still been in charge. But after the Doctor left her behind in Aberdeen, she hadn’t had anyone. Her UNIT friends had to live two more years before the last time she’d left them, so she couldn’t go there. By then, she had already lost touch with anyone she’d known from University and Andrea had been long dead even before that.

She had been utterly and completely alone on a planet that felt more alien than any of the ones she had spent the last decade or so visiting.

Until Maria moved in across the street, the closest friends she had had been Josh and Nat and they had never known her, not who she really was, what she did, what she had seen. It had become so exhausting to always hide a part of yourself that eventually, she had just stopped trying. If no one got close, no one would notice there was something she wasn’t telling. 

But then she had let Maria in, and Luke, and Luke had made her a mum and somehow, that had turned her life around. She had been so scared of it all, of making mistakes - just like now - and oh, how ironic it was that she had thought raising a child all the way would make it easier to understand them when they were growing up. Somehow, she was having a feeling that that was not really going to be the case.

All Sarah Jane had ever wanted for her son was to have a life as normal as possible and now, she wanted the same thing for her daughter. But what was even more important than normal was that they should feel loved, that they would never have to experience that piercing, allconsuming loneliness she had forced onto herself for so long.

And then, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, halfway down the stairs to the kitchen.

Loneliness. 

‘Oh,’ she whispered, eyes wide and she wrapped one hand around the bannister as she sank down right there, in the middle of the staircase. ‘You’re afraid of being alone.’

The realisation hit hard. That was why Sky wasn’t sleeping. She was scared to be alone. She hadn’t been born, she had been grown, and there was no telling how far back her subconscious memory went. Perhaps she remembered the feeling being grown in a laboratory, all alone in some tank filled with alien liquid, without anyone there to ever hold or soothe her. Those lingering memories weren’t surfacing much during the day, perhaps because whatever she had been grown in had been dark and that alone would make even the dim sunlight through the curtains comforting.

And, Sarah scolded herself, she had not been helping. She had been alone for so long herself that the thought of feeling like that again had made her all tense. From all she had read in those baby books, children reflected their parent’s emotions back to them and add that to Sky’s already existing panic of being alone, well. At least now she knew why Sky hadn’t wanted to sleep in her own room. 

Gingerly, Sarah got up again and finally made her way down into the kitchen, one hand gently stroking Sky’s head all the way.

‘I suppose I have to put the crib back in my room, then, don’t you?’ Sky blinked and Sarah sighed softly. Not that it mattered much, there wasn’t anyone to share her bed so no one would care if her daughter slept in her bedroom or in her own. Still, it would have been nice to get some of her private space back. If it stopped her daughter from being scared, though, she'd happily give that up a little longer.

Turlough’s baby carrier was, she resolved in no time, absolutely marvellous. Once Sky was fed and changed and Sarah had a snack herself, she took her out to run some errands. Now that the carrier was adjusted to her size, it was much easier to put on and take off, so she didn’t mind driving over to the Pharos institute to meet Prof Rivers. 

‘Hello Ms Smith - and who is that?’ Of course, Prof Rivers was curious about the baby strapped to Sarah’s chest - how couldn’t she be? They had seen each other barely a months ago when the Metalkind had crashed at the scrapyard, and Sarah hadn’t had a baby then.

‘This is Sky,’ Sarah explained with a smile. ‘I’ve just recently adopted her - it is a long story that I’ll happily tell you about later -’ at least the edited, safe for not-quite-alien-aware people version ‘- but I thought I should bring back those meteorite stones you lend me.’

‘Your article is already finished? You can keep them a little longer if you need, you know, we haven’t planned to do anything with them anytime soon.’

‘Oh, well, that’s very kind of you but I don’t think I need them anymore. And I’d rather not put the somewhere and then not find them again - everything is still very chaotic right now. I had no idea babies were so much work.’ 

‘There’s a reason I never had any,’ Prof Rivers agreed with a nod. ‘I’ve seen my sister do it all - just watching those kids for a few hours and I can’t find anything anywhere!’

‘I know. I never thought I’d ever -’ Sarah cut herself off and shrugged. ‘I didn’t exactly plan to take Sky in, but I wouldn’t miss her now. Even if I can’t find anything anymore.’ Because everything was cluttered with baby supplies, but that went unsaid.

Setting down her purse on Prof Rivers’ desk in her office, Sarah pulled out the box that held the meteorite pieces she had received not long ago. For once, the meteor hadn’t crashed in Ealing but somewhere up north; the Pharos institute had gotten hold of the pieces through good connections. There wasn’t anything alien about them, but there was still a scientific article waiting. Somewhere along the line of their acquaintance, Prof Rivers had designated Sarah Jane as her prefered journalist for the Institute, and since the bills didn’t pay themselves, Sarah was more than happy to write articles covering research by a renowned scientific institution. Being in their good graces had come in handy once or twice already, after all.

‘I’m not quite done with the article yet, but it will be done in time for the next issue for the Scientific Monthly,’ Sarah explained and opened her notebook. ‘Would you mind answering just a few more questions for me?’

‘Of course not. Go ahead.’ 

Interviews with Celeste Rivers were usually quite relaxed and this one was no exception. It made a rather nice change from her last big interview a few weeks ago at ‘Serf’ - unlike that one, this one resulted in Celeste cooing over Sky and a long chat over a cup of tea before they noticed it was way past their time to head home.

‘I’ll tell you about Sky another time,’ Sarah promised because for all the chatting about this and that they had done over the last hour or so, Sky hadn’t actually been a topic. Prof Rivers waved her off and, with the promise to call if there was anything new coming in that would warrant an article or ‘Ms Smith’s expert opinion’, they parted ways to go home.

Still a little tired from the sleepless nights she had been having recently, Sarah ordered some curry for herself before taking Sky upstairs into her bedroom. Having the nursery right next to it had been a good idea; it took barely a few minutes to roll the crib back over and place it next to her bed, right where it had been standing for the last few weeks.

‘You’ll sleep better tonight, won’t you, sweetheart? No fussing, no tears, you’ll just go right to sleep like a good girl. And I’ll be right here, asleep in my bed next to yours, okay?’ She tapped Sky’s little nose and the baby cooed, blowing little bubbles at her. ‘Right. Good. Well, I suppose I should be used to it by now, that you’re not answering yet. But you’ll be good for Mama, I know that.’ Then, she dropped a light kiss on her daughter’s forehead, and went to change into something more comfortable.

Yes, Turlough’s gift was very much appreciated, she decided, because the straps, despite being tight, had left no marks at all and her back felt perfectly fine. It had almost been like Sky hadn’t weighted anything at all, which was a definite win when she considered Martha’s warning and how her back had felt after merely tryin on one of the carriers in the shop. Or carrying Sky around all day. Well. She’d have to see how she’d feel in a few weeks but for now, everything was good.

Better than good, actually.

Sky went down to sleep without any fuss and for the first time in what felt like weeks, Sarah too sank back down into her fluffy pillows with a relaxed smile. Her daughter was right next to her, not over in the other room; neither of them was alone any longer and they were going to be stuck with each other for a long time now.

Life was amazing.


	6. Week Six - The Battle of Bannerman Road - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Trickster returns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may well be the shortest chapter so far (it's still over 4K) but if I kept it in one, it would have been far too long. It's also the last chapter that is sort of in line with SJA canon, after this storyline, it's all up in the air. No worries, though, I have plenty of ideas and I'm sure more will come. Ironically, this was one of my least favourite chapters to write so far but I hope you will enjoy it anyway :)

‘Mum, this is Sanjay,’ Luke said with a bright smile as he introduced his friend to his mother. Sarah Jane smiled at them and shook Sanjay’s offered hand - not quite the way she usually greeted her son’s friends but then, they were her friends too and not strangers.

‘It’s nice to finally meet you, Sanjay. Luke’s told me all about you.’

‘Don’t believe any of it, Ms Smith!’ Sanjay joked and Sarah chucked at Luke’s outraged face, then looked back at Sanjay.

‘Please, no need to call me Ms Smith. It’s Sarah Jane.’

‘Okay, Ms Sm- Sarah Jane.’

‘Why don’t you two come in? I’ll go up and get Sky and you two can make yourselves comfortable in the meantime.’

‘Sure mum. Come on, Sanjay.’

For a moment, Sarah watched the two boys - young men, really - as they started pulling their bags from the car before she turned to get the baby. Sky had been happily cooing at the mobile dangling above her crib when Luke and Sanjay had pulled up, so Sarah had left her to greet them. But from his last few visits, she knew all too well that Luke would want to see his little sister before long and she didn’t feel very comfortable having him drag Sanjay into her bedroom to show her off to his friend.

He had been home much more regularly since she had adopted Sky; at first to check on her, Sarah knew, but then also for Sky and wanting to be around his little sister. Rani and Clyde and she kept him updated, of course, but it wasn’t the same as actually seeing her. When he had been home last week, he had asked if he could bring Sanjay around this week and Sarah had found herself unable to say no. Why would she? This was her son’s current best friend - she wanted to meet him.

Though hopefully, aliens with invasion plans would lie low this weekend because she really did not want to involve anyone else. Not, like once, because she thought no one would believe her but rather to keep them safe. Once your eyes were open to the universe, it was hard to not get pulled in over and over again.

‘Your sister is adorable, Luke,’ said Sanjay with a wide grin as he peeked over his friend’s shoulder. Sarah was leaning against the kitchen counter and couldn’t help but think that it was utterly adorable to watch two teenage boys fawn over the baby in Luke’s arms. 

‘Right?’ Luke had a big smile plastered onto his face as well, the look Sarah endearingly called his ‘big brother smile’. ‘She’s grown since the last time I’ve been home.’

Sarah hummed. ‘I suppose she has. It’s been two weeks since you’ve last seen her.’

‘Well, you couldn’t have missed the gig last week,’ Sanjay reasons and bumps Luke’s arm. Across the kitchen, Sarah can’t help but smile. Luke had always been great around Clyde, Rani and Maria but those two just seemed to get each other. It almost reminded her of herself and Andrea, sharing a dorm at school. Perhaps it was just that kind of knowing each other's quirks that you only got when you were living with them in close quarters, which these two certainly did. 

‘Luke said your cousin is in the band you saw?’ She asked and both boys perked up. And then they spent the entire afternoon, until Rani and Clyde came over to finally meet Sanjay in person, chatting about their friends and what they do outside class and then their classes and really, everything one could possibly imagine. Sarah made three pots of tea before switching to peppermint for herself - she would like to sleep tonight, thank you very much - and the boys devoured the entire contents of her biscuit jar. 

She didn’t mind, she was thoroughly enjoying herself, even if it was unsettling to realise that her son was growing up, and fast.

‘One thing you have to know, my friend,’ Clyde grinned, hours later when the three boys made their way outside, ‘is that you never, ever let Sarah Jane man the grill. Remember last time?’

‘Oh yes.’ Luke had to bite back a laugh. ‘Mum turned our sausages into briquets.’

‘Really? How’d she manage that?’

‘She just can’t cook. Do you know how many times we went out for breakfast on the weekend because she nearly burned down the kitchen?’

‘Yeah, Sarah Jane is amazing, but if you want to keep your house standing, you don’t let her cook.’ Clyde threw Luke an amused look. ‘I think you only survived so long because Alan kept feeding you. And mum.’

‘Well, she’s not that bad,’ Luke conceded - he didn’t like his mum being made fun of, even if in this case, it was pretty much true. He had, after all, more than once asked himself how exactly she had managed to live on her own for so long if she wasn’t even able to fry an egg. ‘She got better.’

‘A bit. But she still has much to learn.’

‘Don’t we all have our weaknesses?’ Sanjay chimed in, trying to get the conversation back to a point where he could join in. Luke and Clyde shared a look and shrugged.

‘I suppose we do,’ Clyde nodded and carefully placed the sausages on the grill, ‘and Sarah Jane does a lot of stuff no one else could do. So I suppose -’ he paused theatrically ‘- she can be forgiven for not cooking.’

‘Great. Can we put the skewers on already?’

‘No, Lukey boy, they go on when these are half done - Sanjay, you tell him!’ He gestured towards them with the tongs and Sanjay sighed dramatically. After a moment of looking back and forth between his best friends, a little taken aback by their sudden ganging up on hin, then he huffed in order to play along - but he could never keep a straight face and after a moment of staring at each other, all three of them burst out laughing.

‘Well, they’re having fun,’ Rani commented drily and set the salad bowl on the dining table. It was still a little too cold to eat outside, so they’d have dinner in the rarely used dining room. Smiling, she peeked at Sky; her bouncer sat at the end of the table because she was wide awake and gurgling happily.

‘I’m glad. How are your applications for Uni going?’ 

‘Good, so far, I think?’ She shrugged sheepishly and Sarah smiled at her.

‘My offer to write you a reference still stands. I know you want to do this on your own, but if it would help, I’d be happy to.’

‘I know. It’s not that, I just...I want to do this on my own?’

‘I understand. I was like that too, when I was your age. But that doesn’t mean that you have to do everything alone - if you want my help, I’m here.’

‘I know, Sarah Jane. Thank you.’ She flashed Sarah a smile. ‘I might take you up on your offer when it gets to work placements. Those are supposed to be hell to get.’

‘Oh yes, I remember. But I think I know just the people to talk to for that.’

‘Well, I need to get into a program first, but thanks.’

They were cut short, then, when the boys finally came back in, carrying plates with the barbequed food. It was too sweet, Sarah thought, how afterwards the four of them insisted they’d clean up the dishes and the kitchen, because there were four of them and only one of her, so they’d be much faster than her and didn’t she have to check on...her far away friends? 

She had almost rolled her eyes at that; usually, at least Rani could be subtle and Clyde too had become much better at that, but apparently, none of them cared much tonight. Not that she could fault them for it, they were having fun and they didn’t need an old woman - ‘you’re not old, Sarah Jane! How could you say that!’ - to rain their parade, so she did make her way upstairs.

Rani and Clyde had long left by the time Luke and Sanjay finally snuck upstairs too, Sanjay crashing in the guest room on the second floor and Luke looking forward to sleeping in his own bed again. Those at Uni weren’t awful, but they weren’t great either. There was light shining out from under his mum’s door, though he got no response when he knocked. 

Carefully, he pushed the door open a little and smiled. Sarah was fast asleep, her glasses still propped onto her nose and the book she had been reading resting on her chest. Luke had to admit, he rarely got to see his mum so peaceful and relaxed and the thought made him smile. Trying not to disturb her, he sat both book and glasses onto her nightstand, then turned off the bedside lamp.

‘Night, mum,’ he whispered, then added, after peaking into the crib, ‘night, Sky.’

He was woken by a blood curdling scream the likes of which he had never heard. Before he even recognised what he was doing, he was up on his feet, running across the hall to his mother’s bedroom.

‘LUKE!’ She screeched again - she was awake, this wasn’t a nightmare. Somehow, that terrified him even more and he didn’t even care to knock as he burst in.

‘Mum, what’s wrong - what happened?’ He couldn’t help it, was just staring at Sky. Or, what was in the place Sky had been, just a few hours ago. Even though Luke was terrified and utterly confused, it was nothing to what his mum felt, he could see that on her face. She was trying and failing to not to full on panic, so he wrapped an arm around her, still unable to tear his eyes off the creature in Sky’s crib. 

‘What happened, is everything alright?’ Sanjay, bursting in now too, woken by Sarah’s scream and afraid something awful had happened. When neither Luke nor his mother reacted, he decided to blow propriety and moved over, trying to see what could possibly have them so terrified. Maybe something was wrong with the baby? But when he, too, saw what was in the crib, he couldn’t help but gasp in shock and horror.

It was a baby, that much was the same. It was even wearing Sky’s romper that Sarah had put her into earlier. But the face, the face was gone. Sky’s sweet pink lips had been replaced by a lipless slit from ear to ear, filled with sharp, sparkling little teeth. Where once her eyes had been were now two dents, the sockets covered by hollow flesh and skin. Her nose had completely disappeared, replaced by nothing but flat skin. 

While Sanjay was still busy staring at the...thing, Sarah Jane drew a ragged breath, then straightened her spine, turning to her son.

‘He’s gone one step too far this time,’ she said and her voice was so cold and hard that even Luke had to suppress a shiver. ‘My life, fine. My past, well. We fixed that. My future, it’s protected. But no one messes with my children. Do you hear me, Trickster? This will be the end of your deals!’ 

Without further ado, she scooped the baby up in her arms, turned on her heel and stalked out of the door, up the stairs towards the attic. For a moment, Luke’s eyes followed her, then he let out a sigh and gave Sanjay a sad smile.

‘I’ve got to call Rani and Clyde. I think we’ll need their help with this.’

‘Wait - Luke, wait!’ Upset, Sanjay followed his friend back across the hallway into his room to grab his phone. ‘Luke, what’s going on? What happened - I mean, what’s that thing in your sister’s crib?’

‘Not a thing, Sanjay.’ Luke’s voice was surprisingly sharp. ‘My sister. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen mum this mad - yes, Clyde, sorry, I know what time it is. No, I don’t care. Look, you have to come over. Like, now. No, not mum. It’s the Trickster. He’s done something to Sky - okay, thanks. See you.’ He hung up, then turned back to Sanjay. ‘Clyde’s calling Rani, they’ll be over soon. Go get dressed, this is going to be a long day.’

Sanjay didn’t protest as Luke ushered him out of his room and suddenly, he felt incredibly guilty. He had promised his mum that he wouldn’t get him involved in the alien business and now this. Unless Jack agreed to get them some retcon, there was no way Sanjay wouldn’t know about the whole thing after today. Perhaps, in time, he could have prepared him, but there would be no time for explanations now. They had to save his sister.

In record time, Luke was dressed and up in the attic, standing next to his mum who had sat Sky in the laundry basket she still kept up here so that Mr Smith could scan her.

‘I’m detecting non-human DNA,’ Mr Smith announced and Sarah shot him a withering glare.

‘Surprise, Mr Smith - we didn’t notice that. What alien DNA is it? Can you reverse what it did to her?’

‘I’m sorry, Sarah Jane. The composition of this DNA is unknown to me. Therefore, I do not know how to reverse the transformation she has gone through. However, I can assure you that what changed her is not harmful. It seems as if the components have been hidden in her DNA from the beginning of her creation, undetectable, as they had taken up the properties of her human DNA.’

‘Are you saying that she had bits of Trickster DNA in her all along?’ The mere thought horrified Sarah, but even more it worried her - what could that possibly mean? It was one of those occasions where she really wished the Doctor was there to help her because she wasn’t sure if, worried as she was, she would be able to think clearly. Right now, she wasn’t just Sarah Jane Smith, who protected the Earth, she first and foremost was a mother scared of losing her child.

‘Yes, Sarah Jane. I have no information on how it got into her bloodstream as she was grown by the Fleshkind Mrs Mayers, but it - you have a visitor, Sarah Jane.’

Both her and Luke whipped around at that and found themselves staring at Sanjay, who had followed the voices into the attic and now found himself gaping at what he saw, unable to really comprehend it.

Sarah sighed deeply, thinking of too many things already to deal with explaining her life to her son’s friend. She shook her head at him. ‘I know this is a lot to take in, Sanjay. And I’m happy to explain it all to you - or maybe Luke will - but first, we have to deal with Sky. Mr Smith, is there anything you can tell us about what happened to her?’

‘Of course, Sarah Jane. As far as my analyses could conduct, the DNA that had been implanted was set to activate itself after a certain amount of time. It is a very similar process to her initial metamorphosis into a teenager when she was confronted with the Metalkind, although that DNA trigger worked with proximity to her enemy rather than time. Once again, she has undergone a metamorphoses, although I cannot say what she is now. Most of her DNA is still human.’

‘Is there a way to turn her back?’

‘I am not sure. In theory, her metamorphosis should be reversible, but there is no obvious trigger for it. With the Metalkind, the discharge of her power deactivated her genetic programming, but there is no such trigger here. Violent destruction of the Trickster DNA would likely kill Sky -’

‘No!’ That, Sarah would not even listen to, much less consider. Sky was her daughter, and she would find a way - any way - to get her back. No matter what she had to do, her daughter would not die today and she would not be forced to grow up as a form of the Trickster. ‘There has to be something we can do! Anything!’ She wasn’t above begging this time, she didn’t care. 

A hand, Luke’s hand, slipped into her’s, squeezing it tight to give her strength. She would do the same for him, they both knew; she had before when the Slitheen had poisoned him with their Rackweed. But he was grown now, and Sky was a baby still, and, Luke resolved, he would not let his mum face this on her own. No, he would stand by her and do whatever was needed because Sky was his sister and that made her the most important person in his life beside his mum.

‘We’ll find a way, mum,’ he promised both of them and Sarah swallowed before finally squeezing his hand back. For a moment, they seemed to both ponder what to do next, ignoring Sanjay behind them, still agape at what was happening, then suddenly Sarah straightened and her eyes narrowed at Mr Smith.

‘Mr Smith,’ she said slowly, her voice icy, ‘how do we call the Trickster?’

‘You don’t.’ They all whirled around to see where the voice was coming from and there he was, right in front of them. The Trickster. Tall and imposing as ever yet this time, Sarah Jane felt no fear as she looked at him, her eyes narrowed. No, she was burning with fury the way she hadn’t since the Slitheen had almost killed Luke with the Rakweed. Back then, Luke had been the most important thing in her universe, and now he shared that spot with his sister. So yes. Fear had made way for fury and anger and none of the Trickster’s usual calm and manipulative charades could make her falter this time. 

‘Trickster.’ Sarah Jane’s voice was cold as ice. ‘How nice of you to drop in. Now tell me: What did you do to my daughter?’

‘Oh, Sarah Jane, she is not your daughter. She is mine, was alway, will always be - finally a way to bring chaos upon this world - taking out your children. They are precious to you, but the one you call your daughter, she is not.’ He gave a cackling laugh. ‘She has no other purpose but to bring chaos down to this world, this whole universe - and you will not stop her, won’t you, Sarah Jane? You would not go through with it because it would harm your precious daughter - but you will be by my side, child, will you not? Come here.’

And suddenly, it clicked and Sarah couldn’t help but laugh. It was absurd, the entire situation. But oh, it made sense, suddenly, why it would happen now. Enough time for Sarah to fall in love with Sky, but not enough time for Sky to get too used to how things worked yet. Only...Sky had, because Sky was a baby and not a grown, albeit young, girl.

The Trickster had no eyes. He didn’t know.

It seemed to take a few more moments for Luke to make the same connection and his eyes too widened as he gaped at the Trickster. ‘Sky won’t go anywhere!’ He exclaimed, ‘She belongs with us!’

‘She is mine and she will join me. Now!’

‘Sky won’t do anything, Trickster,’ Sarah said, her voice slow and measured, ‘because she can’t walk. Your plan didn’t work. It won’t work. Sky is still a baby - my daughter!’

‘Impossible.’

‘But true. And now, Trickster, I want you to turn her back into a human.’

‘She’s mine. Give her to me.’ The Trickster gave them a toothy grin, one that was everything but trust-inspiring, and Sarah shook her head.

‘I most certainly will not. You want something - you always do. So if this time, you want my daughter - I refuse to play your game. I won’t let you bring chaos to earth, and neither will my children.’ Sarah paused, her eyes flickering over to the baby only to then narrow again at the Trickster. ‘Who have you made a deal with about Sky?’

The Trickster cackled. ‘No one! An unborn child is so easy to influence - they didn’t even notice. And you didn't either, Sarah Jane. She’s not going to be yours much longer, and then your pathetic love for her will be your downfall!’

‘Love is never anyone’s downfall!’ All heads snapped around to the door, where Rani and Clyde stood, having barged in to hear the last of the Trickster’s words. Without hesitation, they moved over to stand next to Sarah Jane and Luke, creating a wall between the Trickster and Sky. 

‘Oh, but little girl - it is!’

They were all too slow. Neither of them had noticed the Trickster gathering energy with the hand half hidden from their angle, just waiting for the right moment to throw it at them. Throw it at Luke. 

Sarah Jane never even hesitated, just pushed her son aside as hard as she could, stumbling right into the line of fire. Like the Trickster had planned. She crumbled onto the floor, silent. For a moment, the four young adults stared in horror, then they all dropped onto the ground next to her, her well-being their first focus. 

It was all the time it took for the Trickster to cross the room and by the time Sky let out a startled, terrified cry, he had already disappeared into the Vortex mit ihr.

‘Mum? Mum please, wake up!’ Luke sounded just as terrified as his sister had moments ago, and none of his friends could blame him. Sarah Jane was pale, deathly pale, and her breathing was shallow, if regular. Gently, Luke slipped his arms underneath her and lifted her onto the sofa - she weighed nothing, probably kept forgetting to eat with Sky around.

Sky. His little sister, who was gone now - disappeared. Taken by the Trickster. He turned to look at his friends.

‘We have to find Sky and get her back.’

‘How?’

‘What do we know about the Trickster?’ Rani asked, looking back and forth between Luke and Clyde. Sanjay, for now, stood by helplessly, watching and listening as his friends were beginning to form a plan.

‘He shows up when someone’s dying,’ Clyde started, ticking off their facts. ‘Which we can’t do, obviously. His deals always mean chaos -’

‘Which we can’t allow. Or for him to keep Sky.’ There was a solid resolve in Rani’s eyes, no doubt that they would fail. They couldn’t.

Luke swallowed, looked up at his friends, then back at his mum - still unconscious - and finally turned to Mr Smith. ‘Mr Smith,’ he said slowly, ‘can you scan mum, please? Make sure she’s going to be okay?’

‘Of course. If you would all step aside.’

‘Oh, right.’ The four of them made to scramble out of Mr Smith’s line so he could properly scan Sarah where she was lying on the sofa. For a moment, he was silent, just the light of his scanner running over her, then it dimmed. 

‘Sarah Jane will be fine, although I do not know how long her recovery will take.’

‘Well, what did the Trickster do?’

‘The energy he tried to use on Luke is created from the void, the space of non-being. If it had hit you, Luke, you would be dead now,’ Mr Smith explained and the kids’ eyes widened, their frowns all deepened. When Mr Smith didn’t immediately continue, it was Clyde who voiced the question they were all asking themselves.

‘If it would have killed Luke, then why didn’t it kill Sarah Jane?’

‘Because unlike Luke, Sarah Jane is a space-time-traveller. Her DNA has been slightly altered by the Artron energy she had been exposed to during her travels, especially the times when her own DNA was damaged through radiation poisoning. However, Artron energy, as you may well remember, Clyde, is lethal to creatures like the Trickster because it counters the effects of the energy.’

‘So mum wasn’t...killed because of the residue Artron energy in her DNA that works against the Void energy?’ Luke asked once more, to reassure himself.

‘Yes,’ Mr Smith agreed, ‘it was passive, just filling in the gaps in her DNA until now, but the collision with the Void energy activated it. Until it has absorbed all the -’

‘Absorbed?’ Rani screeched, horrified. ‘You mean that stuff is going to stay in Sarah Jane’s DNA?’

‘No, Rani. The Artron energy originates in the space-time Vortex. As such, it’s sole purpose is to record and restore. In the most likely case, the Void energy will be deemed incompatible with Sarah Jane’s DNA and be rewritten into something akin to Artron energy that will fill in the DNA it previously destroyed.’

‘And the less likely case?’

‘Sarah Jane’s body will simply eject the energy again. Either process will take time.’

‘Great. So we’re on our own at this,’ Luke concluded and finally turned back to his friends. When he spoke again, there was a quiet, strong resolve in his voice, the same one they had all heard in Sarah Jane’s so often. ‘We have to get Sky back.’

‘Do you have a plan?’

‘Yes. Let’s go.’ He turned to Sanjay, gave his friend a tense, if honest smile. ‘Can you stay with mum? I don’t want her to be alone when she wakes up and -’

‘And I have no idea what you’re doing with that Trickster guy. Don’t worry.’ Sanjay squeezed his hand. ‘I’ll stay with your mum and look after her. Just keep me updated.’

‘Will do. Come on.’

‘Luke, where are we going?’ Rani demanded in a hushed voice once they were on the way down. 

‘Just downstairs. I don’t want him to see mum.’ 

‘Why?’

‘Because,’ Luke said slowly, ‘we’re going to propose a deal to him.’

‘What deal?’ Clearly, late nights like this didn’t have Rani at her brightest, because Clyde seemed to suddenly understand.

‘We’re going to tell him to give us Sky back because -’

‘Trickster?’ Luke stood in the middle of the sitting room. ‘I want to talk to you! I want to make a deal. I want to trade my sister for my mother’s life.’


	7. Week Six - The Battle of Bannerman Road - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Trickster needs to be dealt with once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These last two chapters might have very possibly been the hardest two chapters I have ever written. I have no idea why, but I am very happy that I'm done with them now. I have quite the list of adventures and visitors that could happen next, though I haven't yet decided if it will be another more adventerous chapter or a fluffy one. For now, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Everything was dark. Utterly and completely dark. No lights, no stars, no matter how hard she tried to open her eyes. She couldn’t, but it almost felt like someone had sewn her eyelids shut to forever keep her in this terrifying blackness.

Everything was silent, too. No sounds anywhere. Not the creaking and moaning you found in every old house, no wind outside, no soft humming of lullabies or her mother’s gentle, soothing voice. It scared her, so very much, but she could not hear a thing.

Nothing was right. Too dark, too quiet, the cot too hard and the fingers stroking her cheek too rough.

She was scared, so very, very scared. So she did the only thing she could do.

She cried.

* * *

Sarah woke to a pounding headache - in fact, everything was aching. Carefully, she pushed herself up and blinked to take in her surroundings. She was on the sofa in the attic - what on earth had happened to her?

Only when her eyes fell onto the empty basket Sky liked to sleep in, everything came rushing back. The Trickster wanting Sky, the Trickster throwing energy at Luke, jumping in front of him. At least that explained why she felt as rotten as she did right now.

Carefully, she pushed herself up, only to startle and freeze when there was movement behind her.

‘Sorry, Sarah Jane!’ Sanjay. She let out a breath of relief, turning to look at the boy. He had been sitting at her desk, watching her, probably Luke’s idea. Which begged the question -

‘Where’s Luke?’

‘I don’t know. He said he had a plan to get Sky back.’

Had she not still been sitting, surely his words would have made her collapse back onto the sofa again. ‘The Trickster took Sky?’ she whispered, horrified at the prospect. Sanjay swallowed thickly and nodded.

‘He took off with her when we were focusing on you. I’m sorry -’

‘Oh, don’t you dare apologise, Sanjay. This is not your fault - how long was I out?’

‘Fifteen minutes, maybe?’ He shrugged and glanced at Mr Smith. ‘Your computer probably knows. He explained what happened to you too.’

‘What happ - nevermind. We don’t have time for that now.’ Despite the dull ache everywhere in her body, Sarah Jane pushed herself up and straightened herself, making her way down the steps. ‘Mr Smith, what was Luke planning?’

‘I don’t know, Sarah Jane. However, you should know that the energy you were hit with would have killed Luke. If the Trickster did not realise that the Artron energy in your DNA would protect you, he might assume he killed you instead.’

‘Oh, good lord. I hope Luke doesn’t do anything stupid - do you know where they are?’

‘Downstairs. They are still in the house - and I’m getting readings that indicate that the Trickster, too, is with them’.

‘Right. I need a plan. Mr Smith, I need every weakness of the Trickster - the whole Pantheon of Discord - you can find. Anything that could be of use.’

‘The Pantheon of Discord originated in another universe, the destruction of which brought them here. Their purpose is the disruption of this universe, although they are not allowed it’s destruction. They are each bound by a set of rules - the Trickster has to make a deal every time he wants to change an event, otherwise he cannot influence the course of time.’

‘But he didn’t make a deal to change Sky’s DNA,’ Sarah whispered, realisation dawning on her. ‘Mr Smith, is there anything that can be used to hold an entity like the Trickster?’

‘I am not certain, but perhaps you could try using the box from Asterlarion the Asteries left when you helped them. Their society is known for forging prisons from a material known as dwarf star alloy. It is impenetrable by radiation and can hold even Artron energy. Although the energy surrounding the Trickster is different, it is likely that the dwarf star alloy can hold an entity like him too.’

‘It’s also bigger on the inside, isn’t it?’ For the first time, a glimmer of hope shone in Sarah’s eyes as she made to look for the Asterlarian box. It was, by no means, small - about as long as her forearm and half as wide and high - but according to the Asterie that had left it with her as a thank you gift, it’s inside dimensions were far greater. Just what she needed.

As silently as she possibly could, Sarah made her way down the stairs, realising halfway down that her steps were only this quiet because she was still in her pyjamas. It didn’t matter right now. The only thing that truly did matter was to get her children back. She had willingly killed the Blathereen for Luke, entrapping the Trickster for him and Sky would weigh just as little on her conscience eventually.

When she had been young, still so green, just a few trips taken with the Doctor, she had not yet been as much of a pacifist as she was now. She wasn’t violent, but she hadn’t shied away from it either if the situation demanded it. These days, she considered it her very last resort. So far, there had only been a few occasions where it had indeed been warranted and this, she thought, was one of them. Perhaps there would be another way, but she wouldn’t lose sleep over the Trickster if there wasn’t. Besides, if her improvised and not yet in place plan worked, he would be trapped, hopefully for eternity.

There were voices coming from the living room and Sarah froze, tried to listen but couldn’t understand anything from her position on the stairs.

‘What do we do?’ Sanjay nearly made her drop the box as she whipped around and raised a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet. She had forgotten about him, her focus on those of her children in danger - he, the one with no knowledge of what was going on, was safe for now.

‘Go back upstairs,’ she hissed. ‘I don’t want you in harm’s way.’ She didn’t wait for him to respond before she turned back and made her way to the bottom of the stairs, avoiding the one creaky step, and then inching closer to the door to the sitting room. It was half closed, but from where she stood now, she could peek inside.

The Trickster had his back turned towards her, that would work in her favour. Rani and Clyde stood in front of him framing Luke. Her son looked furious and desperate and Sarah hoped that she would never again have to see that look on his face after today. Quietly, she listened, waited, assessed the situation, now that she actually understood what they were saying.

‘No -’, Luke, furious, ‘- you killed my mum. So you’ve already got what you wanted.’ What? Oh. It had taken a moment, but then it clicked and Sarah had to suppress the pride welling up inside her.

‘The child is still mine.’

‘You wanted to use her to get Sarah Jane out of your way, didn’t you? So why do you still need Sky?’ Clyde chimed in, his face just as dark as Luke’s. The Trickster cackled, as if he had asked a terribly stupid question.

‘Because she will wreak havoc across the universe! That is what she has been created for! With her by my side, chaos and destruction will reign everywhere!’

‘We’ve already seen what happens to the Universe without Sarah Jane!’ Rani, this time. Brilliant strike, arguing logically. If it worked against an entity of chaos, questionable, but otherwise brilliant.

Luke chimed in again. ‘Exactly! We’ve seen what happens to Earth and then the universe if mum isn’t here to protect us, so why can’t Sky just stay with us until that happens?’

‘Oh, silly little boy. The child you call Sky is no human, she’s of my blood. If you want her - you shall have her - and fall prey to her nature first!’ She couldn’t see it, but Sarah could almost hear his lipless mouth twist into a haughty grin. He twisted his boney fingers and from nowhere, the bassinet with Sky appeared on the sofa again and the Trickster elaborately pointed at her. ‘The child will only bring destruction - it is in her blood.’

That was her cue. Quietly, Sarah Jane pushed open the door and stepped into the room, the only thing giving her away the wide eyes of her son and his friends, all three rendered silent by her sudden appearance.

‘And why,’ Sarah asked, her voice low and controlled, ‘is that?’

The Trickster whipped around, his robe swirling around him, a snarl on his face. ‘You should be dead!’ he hissed, but Sarah Jane only shrugged.

‘Perhaps. But there are many who tried to kill me and I’m still here, so they haven’t succeeded. I am waiting for an answer, Trickster. Why is it my daughter’s purpose to bring destruction to the universe?’

‘Sarah Jane, forever a thorn in my side,’ the Trickster hissed in lieu of answering her question. ‘You should be dead. You will be dead - I made a deal -’

‘You made no deal with Sky,’ Sarah interrupted harshly. ‘You are not allowed to interfere - your power lies in the deals you make. But you thought you could use Sky to defeat me - and you almost succeeded. You probably would have, had you made a deal. But you said it yourself, earlier. You did not make a deal!’

‘I did what needed to be done to make one now.’ The Trickster grinned and this time, he made no move to hide the trickling white mist that contained his deadly energy when he gathered it, in front of him. Yet when he released it, Sarah was prepared and stepped aside in time, rounding the room to stand next to the kids. She glanced at Sky in the bassinet, sniffling as if she had been crying, but unharmed save for the Trickster’s metamorphosis.

‘Which will it be, Sarah Jane? Your life, or that of your precious child?’

‘I would always choose my children,’ Sarah declared, ‘but this time, we don’t have to make a choice. You disobeyed the rules, so you will lose. Either give up and leave -’

‘Or what?’ He cackled again, still certain that come morning, earth would be his because Sarah Jane would give in, make a choice and a deal.

‘Or you find yourself spending the rest of eternity in the box.’

For a moment, there was silence in the room, the only sound Sky’s sniffles, then the Trickster gave yet another one of his disturbing cackles and all hell broke loose. The strange mist that had been wafting around the Trickster every time they met him began to crackle, suddenly charged with destructive energy.

‘You think a little box will hold me?’ He wondered, ironic amusement unhidden in his voice, then took a step towards them. ‘I have been patient with you, Sarah Jane. But you will not win this time.’

Sarah had just enough time to thrust the box into Rani’s arms before the Trickster reached for her, pulling her forward. His grip on her arm made her already sore body want to scream , but her gaze, fixed on his motionless face, did not once waver.

‘You will never win, Trickster!’ She spat instead, but before she had the chance to say anything else, the energy crackling around the Trickster erupted, shattering every breakable object in the room. Luke, Clyde and Rani barely had enough time to duck behind the armchair, which now was slit open, the stuffing spilling out. Sarah yelped and tried to get a look at Sky, but the Trickster’s firm grip on her arm prevented her from turning around properly. It didn’t stop her from hearing her daughter’s desperate, terrified cries, filling the silence after the blast. It was still dark outside, but then several car alarms started up and Sarah swallowed. Perhaps they should have called UNIT after all.

‘You will go to the place that isn’t,’ the Trickster said smugly, ‘and no one will ever remember you existed.’

His words terrified Sarah, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing that he had gotten her. If she never existed - so many things would change! How many times had she saved the earth, the entire universe, sometimes with the Doctor, sometimes with her friends, and sometimes even alone.

She could already feel the mist around her thicken, her living room fading away, when suddenly, Rani was in front of her, holding the box Sarah had brought down open.

‘We’ll never forget Sarah Jane!’ Clyde called and then, it felt as if she was travelling through the Vortex without the TARDIS, or at least what Sarah imagined that would feel like. Like being squeezed through a tight tube, utterly unable to move. Then, as abruptly as it had started, it stopped and Sarah found herself stumbling forward on wobbly legs, sinking down onto the damaged armchair.

The Trickster was nowhere to be seen. Rani stood next to her, panting as if she had run a marathon, and Sarah watched as Luke and Clyde took the box from her and set it down on the table. They had to brush aside the shards from the broken decorative dishes that had stood there before and had been shattered by whatever the Trickster had done. It was growing chillier by the second, probably because all the window glass was gone.

For a moment, Sarah wondered why everything was so silent now until she realised that Rani’s lips were moving and that there was a very unpleasant ringing in her ears.

‘One of you should call UNIT, please,’ she ordered, but even her own voice sounded off, barely audible to herself. The kids seemed to realise that something wasn’t quite right because they shared a look and then Clyde fished out his phone while Rani knelt down in front of her, still talking but looking very concerned.

In the end, Luke was the one to break her out of her reverie when he scooped Sky up from where she was still lying on the sofa, her wailing just a faint humm to Sarah, and placed her in her arms. Immediately, Sarah wanted to cry.

Her face had not changed, was still shaped like the Trickster’s, only now it was marred too with little cuts from the flying glass. No matter how wretched she herself felt, Sarah simply knew that her daughter felt infinitely worse and that she couldn’t really hear her cries at the moment didn’t change that. So, she simply let herself drop back against the remenants of her armchair and raised Sky to huddle her close to her chest, dropping small kisses over her head. Even with her face all wrong, her scent was distinctively that of her Sky.

‘It’s going to be okay, darling,’ she whispered, or maybe she shouted it, but it didn’t really matter anyway. ‘It’s going to be fine, I promise. We’ll find a way to reverse this and you’ll grow up like any other beautiful little girl.’ She swallowed, suddenly afraid of the alternative. She shook it off, pressed another kiss to Sky’s forehead. ‘And even if we can’t, I’ll love you just as much.’

By the time Sarah’s focus returned to her other kids, who she all pulled into her arms, Sky now resting on her legs only occasionally sniffling, Sanjay too had joined them and the ringing in her ears began to slowly subside. They still looked like they were shouting at her, but at least she heard them now. The blast and the pressure after, when Rani opened that box, had probably wrecked her eardrums, but it didn’t seem to be permanent.

‘Mum,’ Luke said suddenly and she turned to look at him. He gave her a nervous smile than pointed at Sky. ‘Do you think the box trapping the Trickster could reverse what he did to Sky?’

Sarah’s eyes widened and for the first time that night, a wide smile appeared on her face as she beamed at her son. ‘Oh Luke, you’re brilliant - absolutely brilliant!’

‘Why?’

‘Dwarf star alloy absorbs everything that strengthens it.’

‘Meaning...what?’

‘Sky’s abilities could, I’m sure. It’s worth a try, at least.’

‘How do we do that?’

‘I - let’s just see what happens.’ Ignoring the faint protests of the kids - she could still claim she hadn’t heard them, later - Sarah scooped Sky up and crouched down next to the coffee table. She only hesitated for a brief moment, then she took Sky’s tiny hands and pressed them against the box.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen but then a faint hum began to fill the room, more felt than heard. Sarah didn’t know what she had expected to happen, but certainly not for Sky to start glowing again, much like she had weeks ago, during her first metamorphosis at the power plant. It only lasted for a few seconds, then the glow around Sky subsided, leaving the box to glow faintly for a moment before fainting.

The look on Luke’s face told Sarah all she needed to know.

* * *

The silence had ended abruptly, and then the noise had returned. Lot’s of voices, too. Most, she recognised, but there was one that was safe, was home. It sounded scared, she thought, but so strong too.

Then, for yet another moment, every sense of feeling seemed to stop, just before she felt sharp pain across her face. She started crying again, but no one listened. No one did, until finally someone picked her up, someone who felt and smelled familiar, and took her home.

Home was a person. Mother. The one who held her and talked, with that kind voice that was just a little too loud, the one who smelled nice and was all pretty colours. The voice was right, and the smell too, and the soft kisses, but everything was dark still.

And then she felt something cool under her fingers, something that tucked on her very being and she pushed, pushed all the strange things she didn’t want away, the ones that hadn’t been there before.

It was nice, felt good. And then the pressure over her eyes lifted and finally, she could open them again and look at Mother, reach for her - everything was well again.

* * *

Kate had shown up personally, taken one look at the state of 13, Bannerman Road, and then turned to load Sarah Jane, Luke and Sky into her car to take them to a UNIT safehouse. Rani and Clyde would be sent home with express orders from Kate to sleep in the next morning - she was well aware it was a school day, thank you very much - and be ready for someone from UNIT to pick them up at noon.

Sanjay would return to Oxford the next afternoon, so Clyde offered he could stay with him for the rest of the night, but despite Sarah’s best (not really, she was simply too exhausted) efforts of convincing him to join his friend, Luke had insisted on remaining home just a few more days. It wasn’t like he couldn’t afford it, he aced all his classes anyway, so knowing how to pick her battles, Sarah had given up.

Someone - probably Kate or maybe her friend ,Osgood - had gone upstairs to gather some things for them - clothing, bathroom essentials and the likes, just enough to get them through the night. More soldiers were busy calming down the masses, dozens of people coming out of their houses to sneak a peek. Two UNIT soldiers had escorted Clyde and Sanjay so that they would get to Clyde’s unharmed, and the Chandra’s had come out, both in their robes, with worried faces. They had only stared for a moment, then Gita had made a beeline for Kate to figure out what was going on but Kate had neither the time nor the patience to indulge her. Instead, she had sent Rani to her mother and asked them to get back inside, give Sarah Jane and her kids some privacy.

When they arrived at the safehouse, Martha was waiting for them, her face betraying the worry she was trying to hide.

‘What happened?’ was the first thing she wanted to know, but only received a tired shrug from Sarah Jane. The ringing in her ears had finally grown faint, but it was still there, and every bone in her body hurt. Luke was all too happy all too happy to explain, though.

Martha made quick work of examining everyone, starting with Sky, carefully cleaned the cuts all over her face. None of them were deep or really harmful, they’d heal soon enough, but Sarah still found the look of them rather disturbing. Sarah, Martha realised, would fall asleep the moment she sat down, so she went with the fast version before turning to Luke. There was a cut over his eyebrow that needed to be cleaned, but it had already stopped bleeding, and other than that, he, too, checked out fine.

In the entire time since Kate had arrived at Bannerman Road, Sarah Jane had not said a single word and considering what Luke had told them had transpired, that worried her more than she was willing to admit.

‘She’s in shock,’ Martha said softly. ‘And it doesn’t help that she’s exhausted - physically and mentally.’

‘She’ll be alright?’

‘I think so. She’s...she’s Sarah Jane.’ Martha gave an almost helpless shrug. ‘Do you know what happened? Luke didn’t make much sense.’

‘No. We’ll have to wait until they tell us, but the house - god, Martha, you should have seen it. I’m not surprised she’s in shock…’ Kate trailed off and shook her head when Martha gave her a questioning look.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Not a single window intact. Everything in the living room broken - the dishes, decor, the sofa. Like someone blew up a bomb in there.’

‘You don’t think-’

‘No. There was residue alien energy less than an hour old. Very strange alien energy, I might add. I haven’t seen anything like it before. Well, no matter now. You should go home, take the morning off and be back here for lunch. I’m having Rani and Clyde and - what’s the other one called? Luke’s friend? I’m having all of them brought over here too, we’ll have a proper debriefing with all of them and hope that that will clear up things.’

‘Fine, I’ll go back home.’ Martha huffed. It wasn’t like she particularly enjoyed getting out of bed at 4am to be called in for an emergency, but Sarah Jane was a very dear friend and she, too, worried. She had no doubt that Sarah Jane would come out of this alright in the end, but she had been more shaken than she had ever before seen her be, and Martha realised she found seeing that in someone as though quite unsettling.

Quietly, she ventured back upstairs one last time to peek in on her friends. Luke’s room was, unsurprisingly, empty. Under the door of the room assigned to Sarah Jane, faint light was shining through, so she gently pushed open the door just wide enough that she could sneak a look. A smile found its way onto her face. They were all there, huddled together, Luke curled up by his mother’s side, her left hand resting on his shoulder. Her right was holding the baby, peacefully snuggled into her chest and without a sound, Martha closed the door again.

She knew she’d been right. They’d be just fine.

* * *

Unlike the last time, Sarah opened her eyes to find herself in a bright, rather nice room. For a moment, she had no idea where she was, but then memories of the previous night came rushing back and she remembered the house Kate had taken them too, and falling asleep with Luke and Sky beside her. She was alone now, they were gone, but now that she knew where she was, she was confident that they were both well taken care of.

Instead of panicking, she started to carefully take stock of how she felt and realised, to her surprise, that she felt better than she had in a long time. All the bonedeep, aching weariness of the previous night was gone, no headache, no tiredness.

Finally, she sat up with a smile and pushed back the covers to get up. Someone had brought a set of clothing for her that sat on the dresser by the window, and in the bathroom, she even found that it had been stocked up with small tester bottles of the brands she usually used. Thankful for the familiarity of these little things, Sarah went to quickly shower and get dressed and then go to find her children.

Whoever had packed for them had even brought her boots and Sarah briefly wondered what shoes she had been wearing the night before. None, she realised. If you didn’t count her slippers. Unlike the kids, she had never taken a moment to get dressed herself, had been too focused on saving, well. Not the world, but her world.

Voices chatting came drifting up the stairs, accompanied by the scent of fresh pancakes.

When Sarah finally pushed open the door leading to the kitchen, everyone stopped talking to look at her, smiling wide as if she had been the guest of honour. She smiled back, taking in the scene in front of her.

Clyde and Sanjay were sitting on the counter, grinning at her. Rani stood next to Martha at the stove, helping with the pancakes. Luke had, apparently, been chatting animatedly with a young woman - her shirt seemed eerily familiar, actually - while feeding Sky her bottle. Kate stood by the door, talking to two uniformed men, probably giving them instructions, but even she turned to give Sarah a relieved smile.

‘Hey mum.’ Luke beamed at her. ‘How are you?’

‘Great,’ she answered truthfully and sat down next to him. The kitchen wasn’t made for this many people, it was crowded and yet, she didn’t hate it. In fact, it was nice to see that there were people who care this much about her and her kids. ‘How are you? And the three of you - Sanjay, I’m so sor-’

‘We’ve already talked, mum,’ Luke interrupted, ‘it’s okay. He’s fine with it.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Are you kidding? ‘Course I am. I mean, who else can say they make friends with aliens in their freetime?’ Sanjay’s words made her smile and even drew a small chuckle from Kate.

‘I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone put it quite like that.’

‘It’s true, though. Pancakes, Sarah Jane?’ Sarah nodded and allowed Rani to load a pancake onto her plate. By the looks of it, the other’s had already eaten but no one seemed to mind sticking around longer to wait for her.

They brought her up to speed, though, on what she had missed so far: The four debriefings, if you could call it that, of the four teenagers, recounting the events of the night before until the arrival of UNIT, how UNIT was still present at Bannerman Road helping to clean up the house.

‘Offically,’ Kate explained, ‘this hasn’t been a UNIT mission, but since you called us in afterwards, we need something to put into our report.’ She had also taken the liberty to send a glazer over to measure out the windows so they could be replaced within a few days. ‘I’ve locked your attic, everything seemed in order there, but the rest of the house needs new windows. UNIT will cover that, since you’ve done us yet another great favour disposing of this Trickster -’

‘Where’s the box?’ Sarah asked suddenly, interrupting her.

‘What box?’ There was a puzzled look on Kate’s face now, but Clyde was the one who piped up this time.

‘Sanjay and I took it home,’ he explained. ‘So it’d be out of the way when UNIT came.' The sheepish grin on his face had Kate hide her smile as she shook her head. Leave it to Aunt Sarah to teach her kids not to be too trusting towards UNIT. 'It's in the bag we brought.'

'I take it this box you're talking about is the one that trapped the Trickster?' Kate asked, just to be sure, and got five nods in response.

'I was wondering,' Sarah said slowly, 'whether you could dispose of it for us.'

'Dispose as in "lock it away in the Black Archive" or -'

'No. Dispose as in "drop it over an ocean trench and make sure it sinks to the ground".'

'Oh. Well. I suppose we do have the equipment for that. Osgood?'

'Yes, Ma'am?'

'I'd like you and Josh to take care of that.'

'Of course. I'll get right to it. Any preference which trench you want it dropped in, Ms Smith?' If she was surprised that Kate and Osgood were taking her literally, Sarah didn't let it show. Instead, she just gave Osgood a wry smile.

'A deep one.'

Her answer made Osgood grin. She hadn't met her before but she had heard and read a lot about Saah Jane Smith, the Doctor's dearest friend, and her expectations of what she'd be like had not been disappointed. She gave a small salute. 'On it, Ma'am.'

With the Trickster taken care of, there wasn't much left to do. Sarah had to give her account of what happened, then someone took Rani, Clyde and Sanjay back to Bannerman Road while Martha finally completed her check up with all three Smiths.

'You're all perfectly healthy,' was her diagnosis in the end, although she gave Sarah Jane a small frown. 'You seem almost too healthy, considering…'

'I'll have Mr Smith run another check when we get home,' Sarah assured her, because really, she felt fine. Better than fine, actually, so she wouldn't be caught complaining anytime soon.

'Fine.' Martha huffed. 'But if he finds anything out of the ordinary-'

'I'll let you know. I've been taking care of myself for a long time, Martha. Trust me when I say I'm good.'

'Well, I'm the doctor, so I think I'll be the judge of that - besides, I need you there at my wedding, remember?'

'How could I not? I'm looking forward to it already - and you'll tell me if there's anything you need help with. I still have some connections, you know?'

'So you say. But we need to set a date first, before we really get into planning anything, and settle on a guest list.'

'Well, if there's anything I can do -'

'Yes, yes.' Martha teasingly rolled her eyes, then changed the topic while they were still alone. 'Do you know when you'll be able to go back home?'

'No,' Sarah said and shook her head. 'Not very long, I should hope. Kate said that the company doing the windows is almost done.'

'What about the furniture? I've heard your living room was a mess.'

'It was. But I called my household insurance earlier and they should cover most of it. Rani said she snuck up into the attic this morning and everything seemed fine there, so I'm hoping that it really is just the sitting room and the windows.'

'Well, if you need help when your new sofa and all arrives, give us a call, Mickey and I will be happy to help put everything in place.'

'Thank you, Martha.' Sarah gave her friend a sincere smile and squeezed her hands. 'For everything.'

Martha smiled back and winked at her. 'Anytime.' She checked her watch. 'I have to get going, there are some other patients at HQ that I have to see.'

'Of course. Take care, and give my best to Mickey.'

'Will do - I'll call you for Sky's next check up?'

'Yes, thank you.' With a small wave, Martha left to go back to HQ and suddenly, the house suddenly seemed empty and quiet. Kate had left hours ago to go back to work, taking her soldiers with her and now it was only Luke, Sky and Sarah herself left.

Smiling, she made her way downstairs to find both of them on the patio, enjoying the spring afternoon.

'Hey, mum.' Luke looked up at her when her shadow fell over them and she sank down on the picnic blanket next to them, scooping up Sky to press a kiss onto her forehead. With the baby situated on her lap, she reached out to wrap an arm around Luke, who didn't hesitate to let his head drop onto her shoulder.

'I'm so glad you're both alright,' she whispered into his hair and he smiled, slipping one of his arms around her waist while his other hand went to tickle Sky.

For a moment, he was quiet, then he pulled away just enough to look at his mum. 'You really scared me last night. I thought…' he hesitated, then went on after a moment. 'I thought I'd lost you, and then Sky too - I was really afraid, mum.'

'I'm sorry, Luke. I just -' Sarah broke off, shook her head. 'I didn't mean to scare you like that. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, I promise. And neither is Sky.'

'I hope so. I don't want to lose you,' he said quietly and let his head fall back onto her shoulder. Sarah squeezed his arm and rested her cheek against his hair.

'At least we're now done with the Trickster for good. I doubt he'll ever get out of his prison and if he does...Sky's not his weapon anymore. '

'Have I ever told you,' Luke said suddenly, 'how incredibly lucky I am that I get to have you as my mum? Me and Sky both.'

'Oh Luke,' Sarah whispered with a smile. 'I'm the lucky one.'

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'd love to hear your thoughts!


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